


Extraneous Variables

by Copperfur, phoenixreal



Series: Bleach Alpha/Beta and MPreg Fics [6]
Category: Bleach
Genre: Alpha/Beta, Dubious Consent, F/F, F/M, Graphic Torture, Implied Consent, M/M, Mating, Mpreg, Rebellion, Revolution, Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-24
Updated: 2014-05-31
Packaged: 2018-01-16 20:33:54
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 11
Words: 42,218
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1360840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Copperfur/pseuds/Copperfur, https://archiveofourown.org/users/phoenixreal/pseuds/phoenixreal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Collab fic, much in update and changes coming.</p><p>Mostly written as a Alternate Universe of phoenixreal's Unexpected Kingdom at Copperfur's request!</p><p>Post Rukia rescue.  Ichigo's hollow enacts a change, and Aizen's arrancar retrieve a dangerous variable for their master.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. First Variable: Ichigo

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Unexpected Kingdom](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1156010) by [phoenixreal](https://archiveofourown.org/users/phoenixreal/pseuds/phoenixreal). 



> Welcome my dear readers. There was a bit of confusion about those that read Unexpected Kingdom. Why yes, this is an alternative universe of my own story at the request and cooperation of Copperfur. We thought it could use some more whumpage. Despite it being an AU of my own work (is that meta or what?) the story is very different. The same characters are used, and the beginning is a strikingly similar situation. However, things deviate relatively quickly.
> 
> WARNINGS: Posted once, will not be repeated.
> 
> This story contains:  
> Graphic Lemons and Limes (though lemons are focused on Ichigo)  
> Dub-con and Non-con situations  
> Graphic torture scenes  
> Blood, gore, and death  
> OMEADA DIES 
> 
> Pairings used: HaremXIchigo (Ulquiorra, Grimmjow, Starrk, Szayel, Nel), GgioXSoiFon, RenXRukia, YoruichiXKisuke, JushiroXShunsui, UryuuXNemu, and more I haven’t decided on yet.
> 
> Constructive reviews welcomed, flames will be used to fuel the fire I burn Aizen with.  
> I don’t own Bleach and I don’t get paid for this.
> 
> And PLEASE if you want to use elements from my stories, ASK. I’ve had blatant theft of my stories lately and it has left me contemplating if I want to continue writing fanfiction.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edited and Re-uploaded: 5-2-14.

                Ichigo fell in a heap and as all the stress drained away. They’d been had; all of them had been had. Aizen had planned everything, from beginning to end, and had been ahead of the every step of the way. The only consolation Ichigo had was the fact that Rukia was alive by their invasion of soul society. If they hadn’t interfered, she would have died, and even though everyone would have found out eventually about Aizen’s treachery, it would have been too late. So no matter what, he was sure that it was worth it. Every little bit of what they’d done had been worth it because she was still alive, and Chad was alive, and even Ishida’s annoying ass was alive. He was beginning to doubt his own survivability, though, as he was losing his vision. Granted, he was curious as to how much more durable this soul form was than his human body.

                _Don’t die,_ he heard in his head and his eyes flew open and he found that he was staring at Inoue. The voice hadn’t come from her, obviously, and he thought he knew that voice. He hoped he was wrong. He stared at Inoue. She was crying, and he wondered why did she have to cry all the time, he really didn’t care for that sort of thing. True, he was more than nine tenths dead, he was sure, but still. Stop with the tears, he wanted to tell her. He also wanted to tell her to stop giving him the goo goo eyes. But he didn’t want to hurt her feelings and he knew that it would lead to more tears if he did tell her there wasn’t a shot in hell that he’d ever have anything to do with her. Instead, he smiled at her and sighed, feeling the strange magic knit his body back together. He was very grateful for what she did for him. Without her, he was certain he would have died even with the fourth division bussing around the hill.

                His heart though beat suddenly loud in his ears and he sat up and groaned. “What the hell…” he muttered.

                Inoue frowned. “Kurosaki-kun?” she said. “What is it; you shouldn’t get up yet…”

                He shook his head. “Something…different…”

                Manic laughter sounded in his head. _Just helping you along, there, my king…I’ve got some plans for you, and I can’t put them off any longer._

“What are you doing, you b-bastard,” Ichigo muttered, staring into space, at a point somewhere past Inoue’s head.

                “Ichigo, who are you talking to?” she asked, looking behind her to see no one.

                “Ah, damn,” he groaned, doubling over as a wave of pain shot through him. “Stop it, stop it, dammit, stop it you hollow bastard!”

                The shield shattered and Inoue stepped back, watching as black reiatsu tinged with red began to whip around Ichigo’s body. By now, Rukia had come to stand beside her as Byakuya had been taken to the fourth, and Ishida, Chad and Renji had all started heading toward him. Unohana stopped and stared. She knew there was something different about Ichigo, but she hadn’t had a chance to examine him yet. Black reiatsu though, that was something she hadn’t encountered often in her long life.

                Finally the black receded and he sat there for a moment before he fell backward and unmoving. The others paused but started when he started to giggle in a voice that was not his own, high pitched and positively insane. They all rushed over toward him to find him staring up with eyes that had changed from the normal deep brown into black sclera and gold irises, still giggling.

                “Ichigo?” Rukia asked, crawling over to him.

                “Hey midget,” he said amid the giggles. “They’re coming for him and you can’t stop him,” he said in a sing song voice. “They’re gonna take ‘im away, and he’s never gonna be the same….gonna be the King, you know…” He burst out laughing again and held his hands up in the air and stared at them as the nails began to turn black. “Ha, king, I gotcha now, fuckers never knew what happened, you’ll be the one to rule, my king oh my king,” he giggled and sat up and sprung to his feet. Everyone jumped back from him.

                “Look at you, you don’t get it, do you?” he asked; the orange of his hair fading to white and his skin paling. “He’s a fuckin’ hollow, he’s me, you bitches don’t get it! And we’re going to take it to Aizen, the fucker…”

                He giggled again and stared at his rapidly whitening hands. “Oh feels good to be in control, Ichigo,” he muttered and stared at them. “Your friends can’t believe that you’ve been hiding me so well, you know, king. You have no idea what he is!” he screamed the last at them and then started laughing again. “This will be good! So strong you are, but you’ll find out what strength is…”

                Renji had Zabimaru in shikai and pointed at him when he turned around. “Who are you?”

                The creature in Ichigo’s body grinned. “Why don’t you recognize me, Red? I’m your friend, Ichigo!”

                “Like hell, what are you?” Renji said, pressing Zabimaru into the white neck.

                “I don’t have a name, at least not now, I used to have one,” he said softly. “I guess I pay rent by givin’ Ichigo my power. But I got so much more to give him; the old man has his powers locked up tighter than a drum. Might explode if we let it all go, you know. But those arrancar, they’re close, and they triggered something…something inside us that I can’t stop. Oh the old man didn’t expect this…”

                “Old man?” Renji asked.

                He nodded. “Zangetsu, of course, dumb asses, well, sort of. I’m not sure which of us is the Zanpakutou anymore. Now, if you excuse me, I give him…oh a day or so before they come kidnap his ass and drag him to Hueco Mundo…they’re already here after all, they’ve been watching for Aizen and wanting to see how much of a danger Ichigo here is, which he is the only danger to Aizen there is. I feel the power, and if I were outside I’d be after Ichigo’s ass just like them. But alas, those traits got erased after I became one with his mother. Damn mother’s instincts…”

                “What?” Rukia said, moving forward.   “Who is going to kidnap him?”

                The pale face smiled. “Gee I wonder indeed. Why don’t you check with old Mayuri-chan about what a beta hollow is? And you might just understand. And maybe ask Urahara about Ichigo’s dad and White. That’s a name I haven’t used in a while. Oh, he’s getting pissed with me, I better let him out. He’s gonna be a prissy little bitch from now on, so watch out…”

                With that there was a burst of reiatsu and Ichigo staggered backward, blinking his brown eyes which seemed to be different somehow. He swayed on his feet for a minute before he dumped himself face first into the ground. Inoue immediately threw her shield over him and shook her head.

                “Nothing to heal…I mean, nothing new, he still needs rest…but he shouldn’t have passed out.”

                They headed off to the fourth with him and waited. Once there, they realized he’d changed in a few subtle ways. Rukia thought she was seeing things as she scanned his sleeping form but she called Uryuu into the room.

                “Ishida, tell me, does he look different?” she asked, staring at him.

                Uryuu pushed his glasses up and frowned. “Yeah…like…I can’t explain it. He’s more…or less…I don’t know.”

                They looked up to see Kurotsuchi and Urahara coming into the room together. Rukia arched a brow at the shopkeeper.

                “You never listen to what I say, Kisuke! If you had you wouldn’t have ended up where you were for the last hundred years…” the eccentric taichou said with a growl to his voice.

                “Mayuri, really. I listen, if I didn’t you’d still be in the Maggot’s nest, now wouldn’t you?” Urahara said, obviously annoyed with him.

                Mayuri leaned against the wall. “You do like to keep reminding me, don’t you, _taichou?_ ” he said with venom to his tone.

                “I left that title long ago, Mayuri, now I’ll see to my charge, thank you,” Urahara said. “Isshin is counting on me to keep him alive.”

                Urahara cast a couple kido spells and then looked at the confused looking pair. “I’ll explain later, Rukia-san, now you’re sure the thing that was in Ichigo said to ask about hollow betas?”

                Rukia nodded. “Yeah, very sure. And he said to ask you about White. What does all that mean?”

                Urahara sighed and rubbed his head. “I don’t think this has gone at all according to plan.”

                “So it is true?” Mayuri said, his eyes lighting up as he looked at Ichigo’s body. “Can I dissect him, please? I am dying to know what Aizen did with White.”

                Urahara glared at Mayuri. “You are not dissecting Ichigo.”

                “You honestly don’t think the Old Man will let him live, do you?” Mayuri said, eyeing him. “I mean, I could figure out how it got there, and then find out how he got the…”

                “No, he is not going to kill him, Mayuri and you aren’t dissecting him, and that’s final! I’ll take him and hide him like I did the Visored if it comes to it,” Urahara said with a snort. “The Old Man knows better than to mess with those I am protecting. Besides, you’re going to need him and the Visored to take down Aizen now that he’s shown his true colors.”

                “Why would anyone want to dissect Ichigo or kill him; what is going on? What in the three worlds is a beta and who is White and what was that _thing_ that took over Ichigo’s body?” Rukia said, throwing up her hands in exasperation.

                “Ichigo is special, Rukia, he’s…he’s got a hollow that was passed to him from his mother that shares his soul…it was Aizen’s fault, he had created this hollow, built it from shinigami souls, and named it White. It was a hollow without a hollow hole, and entirely black save his mask. It infected Masaki, Ichigo’s mother. I stopped it from hollowifying her, because she couldn’t handle it like the Visored, she was a Quincy not a shinigami.   It linked Ichigo’s father to her soul and he gave up his powers to stay in the World of the Living. We considered the thought that it could pass to Ichigo, and after what we’ve seen, it passed to him, becoming one with his soul,” Urahara said with a sigh. “His father requested that I train him and help him along the way if I could confirm that the hollow had come to be inside him. It has, obviously from what you and Kuchiki-taichou witnessed. This has happened before, hollow powers in a shinigami, Aizen’s experiments caused it a hundred years ago and they were supposed to be destroyed. I saved them, along with Yoruichi and Tensai, and helped Isshin and Masaki when he left Soul Society, and then when Ichigo came into his shinigami power.”

                “And what is this beta thing?” Rukia continued.

                “That’s where it gets complicated. Ichigo is partially a hollow, or at least he has an inner hollow, and it seems that that hollow is a beta. Alphas are dominate hollows, betas are the submissive hollows. All alphas can impregnate, all betas can become impregnated. Hollows are collections of souls that mimic base instincts, and one of those driving instincts is procreation. While it is not necessary, they are driven to procreate just like they are to consume souls. Gender is unimportant because hollows are collections of souls of both genders. Dominance and submission are the markers of who is in control, and who can bear and mother babies. And if he’s not lying, that means that the hollow may have activated the hollow beta aspects in Ichigo…” Urahara said with a sigh.

                “He said something about a mother’s instinct?” she said.

                Urahara gasped. “Of course! The hollow was in Masaki before it passed to Ichigo. Even if the hollow had been a dominate type before, going through the process of motherhood could easily have altered it to become more motherly and forced it to become a beta. From what Isshin said, it was powerful, and from what I’ve heard from you and the others confirms it has a domineering personality, yet it still submits to Ichigo.”

                “He said there were arrancar near that had triggered the change,” Rukia said. “What would that matter?” she asked, looking down at the unconscious body.

                “They’re animals, so they all release various pheromones, and the proximity, with the hollow coming to the surface during the fight with Byakuya-san may have initiated the alterations to suit the hollow’s nature…” Urahara said, looking upward with a thoughtful look on his face.

                “That’s why he looks different,” Uryuu said, pushing his glasses up and staring at Ichigo. Urahara frowned and looked down.

                “Oh dear.”

                Mayuri looked. “What is it? I don’t know the boy.”

                “He’s matured, fully; the childish effects of his appearance are gone. I’d say he’s aged three or more years. His face has softened, become less angular, and his eyes are slightly larger and wider apart. You can see here, his body shape has altered to be less masculine and more neutral in appearance. Granted, Ichigo wasn’t the most muscular male I’ve ever seen, but still. This is subtle but obvious. Betas are usually very neutral looking when I’ve seen arrancars, even the female appearing ones tend to look neutral,” Urahara pointed out.

                “So what do we do?” Rukia asked.

                Urahara shook his head. “We wait.”

                They didn’t wait long because at that moment Ichigo chose to wake up and look around the room and blink rapidly.

                “Um, I don’t think I’m dead,” he said. “So what’s with the faces?”

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

                “So what’s he so worried about one shinigami for?” Grimmjow asked, rolling his eyes as he stepped into the garganta beside Ulquiorra and Starrk. “Especially to bring you out, primera.”

                Starrk sighed and shook his head. “ _No se, mi amigo_. It is unclear to me as well. Aizen says that he is an uncontrolled variable, and he wants to know his threat. And if he is a threat, to bring him back.”

                Grimmjow rolled his cerulean eyes and sighed. “Really, and we can’t engage anyone yet?”

                Starrk shook his head. “No, we are to sneak inside the seiretai using the devices that Szayel gave us, and keep the reiatsu masking devices activated at all times so we are undetected by the shinigami,” he said, pausing to yawn. He’d left Lillinette behind so he wouldn’t be able to use his resurreccion anyway.

                Grimmjow grumbled some more, and Ulquiorra was passive as usual about the entire situation. He would do as Aizen ordered. It wasn’t as if he had anything else to occupy himself with. The events that unfolded around their extraneous variable were interesting, however. They watched as his power level began to skyrocket in ways none had ever seen. Then, after Aizen’s treachery was revealed and he was taken with the other two traitor shinigami via negacion, they watched from the hill at the truth of the variable.

                “Fuck me,” Grimmjow muttered. “He’s a fuckin’ hollow and a shinigami? But he’s not an arrancar?”

                Starrk nodded. “He’s not just _un_ hollow, _mis amigos. Esta_ Vasto Lorde…”

                Grimmjow hadn’t wanted to admit it, he’d never become vasto lorde himself, he was adjunca class when he’d turned into an arrancar. But he felt the barely contained power. Starrk glanced at Ulquiorra who was staring at the scene as the hollow took over and actively altered the soul form. That in itself was a thing none of them had ever seen. It was as though there were multiple souls residing in the body.

                “If he has the power of a vasto lorde class arrancar…and he obviously has the power of a captain class shinigami, we must take him to Aizen-sama,” Ulquiorra said with a nod and looked at the other two. “We watched him defeat a third seat of the eleventh, the captain of the eleventh, and the lieutenant of the sixth with bankai followed by the captain of the sixth. He is dangerous to Aizen-sama.”

                Starrk frowned and looked back, watching the boy fall after the incredible amount of hollow energy he had been putting off and he closed his eyes sensing the…oh. He was the first among them to sense it, he could see. He had the highest degree of power, of course, so it wasn’t unusual that he sensed the pheromones first. This would change things, however. Even the stoic Ulquiorra could not resist the allure of something like this.

                Grimmjow grinned. “I hope he lets me have a go at him, that’d make a damn good fight,” he said nodding thoughtfully.

                “Too many shinigami for us to move now, let us retire,” Starrk said with a sigh. “We will move later, he is unprotected, no doubt, at least from the likes of us. I am convinced that he will come out to find us at some point.”

                They moved away and camped out in the Rukongai, well away from anyone else. When Ulquiorra had walked away to patrol Starrk glanced at Grimmjow. “You sensed it.”

                Grimmjow looked at the lazy espada. “Sensed it?”

                Starrk nodded, looking up at the sky. “ _Si_ , the power, but not only that, he is _una_ beta with that much power.”

                Grimmjow frowned.   “But what of it? Aizen wants him dead, or at least under his control…”

                “Have you been around hollow betas?” he asked, staring still at the sky.

                Grimmjow shook his head. “Nah, can’t say I have.”

                “I have, at least before I became so powerful they died in my presence. No, you will find that once he is near, you will turn Heuco Mundo upside down to save him and protect him. No, he will call your _corazon, mi amigo_. And you will answer.”

                Grimmjow snorted. “I don’t have a heart, none of us do, remember?”

                Starrk turned to him and smiled. “Ah you believe that now. Wait, and you will see that there is something there and _una_ beta will ignite a flame in your _corazon_.”

                Ulquiorra returned and Starrk stood to take a patrol. Grimmjow watched him carefully. If that was true, where would Ulquiorra stand? He knew a little bit about alphas and betas, there were some betas among the espada, but they were either too old like Lord Barragan, or too crazy like Szayel and novena to have any effect on the alpha males of the group. He wondered if Aizen even knew about the dynamic between the two types of hollows.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

                Ichigo woke up sore as hell. He stumbled off the bed into bathroom and into the bath because he felt grimy. Then he walked out and was drying his hair which felt odd for some reason and he caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror. The ensuing yelp brought Renji and Uryuu both running into the bath and then they both stopped and stared.

                Ichigo was staring wide eyed at himself in the mirror and completely still, one hand still on the towel he was drying his hair with, the other holding the one around his waist. What had caused his problem was the fact his skin was fading out to white. And there were bright red marks streaking his face across his cheekbones that looked too similar to that dumb hollow mask he kept finding on himself after fights. So far the lightening hadn’t turned his skin entirely white, but the shading was noticeable. Also on his chest were three broad black lines that looked like Renji’s tattoos sweeping over either shoulder that came to a stop in a large black circle in the center. His hair felt weird because it was longer, down to the small of his back. His fingernails and toenails looked the same, but had taken on a black color.

                He turned and looked at Renji and Uryuu both of which were staring with gaping mouths at him. “Ichigo?” Renji asked, having seen the transformation the day before.

                “I…I…what the hell!” he said, dropping the towel off his head and leaning over to examine his face closer. “I’ve got hollow marks on my face! And my chest! Oh that bastard, I’m gonna kill him even if I die in the process, what the hell did he do to me?”

                In his mind he heard a manic laugh. _Just setting you up, king._

                “Setting me up, you no name hollow bastard, turn me back the way I was!” he said to the mirror, growling. “I don’t want this, make me normal again!”

                _Ain’t gonna ever be normal again. Don’t you feel them, the powerful alphas? They’re going to come get you soon…and then…well, we’ll see. The rule of hollows…it is an attractive thing._

“Come get me, what the hell are you talking about?” he said, frowning into the mirror. “Who is coming to get me and what the hell is an alpha? Talk to me you hollow bastard!”

                The voice laughed but was quiet. Ichigo ran a hand over his hair and looked at Renji and Uryuu and sighed. “I swear, can I not have a normal life for ten minutes?”

                Renji shook his head. “We should get Unohana-taichou, Ichigo, see what is happening…and Urahara is here too…Ishida, will you go for him?”

                Uryuu sighed and nodded, leaving as Renji led Ichigo out of the bath and back into his room. Ichigo went to reach for his clothes and Renji shook his head. “Wait, man, she’s gonna want to see that,” he said pointing to his chest. Ichigo looked down and touched the black lines.

                “Well, I guess I could say they’re tattoos…huh…” he said and looked up as Unohana came in followed shortly by Uryuu and Urahara.

                “Oh dear,” Urahara said as he came in and looked him over as Unohana cast a kido on him. “Do you feel okay?”

                Ichigo shook his head. “I feel…weird. Like I’m about to jump out of my skin, and I can’t seem to get cooled off, I feel like I’m under a heating lamp or something…” he said sighing. “Can I put on my hakama at least?” he said, looking at her. “Don’t think anything down there’s changed.”

                She looked at him. “Let me see first,” she said. Ichigo felt the blood rush to his face and nodded, grabbing his hakama but dropping the towel and she nodded after confirming he had no marks on his legs or pelvis. He slipped on the hakama quickly and tied his obi before he jumped back on the bed and sighed deeply.

                “This is going to be hard to explain,” Unohana said. “His physical body, the soul form, is taking on more hollow aspects. Whatever happened yesterday, it initiated an alteration so deep that it doesn’t even read as an alteration on the diagnostic spells. That’s why Inoue couldn’t do anything to change it. And there’s a pheromone being emitted, rather densely, but I don’t think anyone here could detect it. I’m unsure the result and what range it might have.”

                Ichigo shifted uncomfortably, rubbing his hands over his upper arms and his eyes darting around the room. “I feel so…jumpy,” he said. “Like…I don’t know. I need to find something,” he said, starting to get up and move toward the door.

Urahara put his hands on him and pushed him back to the bed. Ichigo tipped his head to the side and stared at him for a moment. Then he closed his eyes and Urahara saw that they were fluttering and the next thing he knew he was slammed into the wall and blinking in surprise as Ichigo burst away with the distinct sound of a sonido, leaving them all to stare at the empty doorframe.

                “This could be bad,” Urahara said. “I…whatever that was…I’ve never seen him do that. He didn’t shunpo, he used a sonido like an arrancar. Get Byakuya and Yoruichi, they can catch him, no one has a faster shunpo right now…”

                Renji and Uryuu followed him out and before long they were spreading out over the seiretei trying to figure out where Ichigo had gone. Within a few moments of searching Renji sensed a rise in Ichigo’s reiatsu and headed that direction to find him fighting with Byakuya, but he wasn’t even paying attention, he kept glancing around him as he deflected the blows. Byakuya was obviously annoyed, having fought him before. There was something different, of course, for one, Byakuya was trying not to harm him. For another, Ichigo seemed to be able to deflect anything that came his way.

                Renji dropped beside Byakuya and yelled, “Ichigo!”

                Ichigo turned back and blinked, his eyes flickering between brown and glowing red for a second then back to brown. “Renji?” he said, pausing and staring at his sword as if he hadn’t realized he was fighting. “Where…what…where am I?” he glanced around him then grimaced. “Oh, they’re closer…closer…” he said softly. “Coming to me…they are…”

                “Ichigo! What is going on? Why’d you run off?” Renji said, holding Zabimaru up defensively.

                Ichigo shook his head. “They’re here…gotta find them…so…hot…” he muttered and looked around turning his back on them. Renji saw the black was extended over his shoulders and down his back now. The three red marks on his whitening face that had gotten even darker red since he left the fourth division. Byakuya and Renji both started when they heard three bursts of sonido and looked up to see three white clad figures crouched on the building near them.

                “Well, well, shall we take our prize home?” Grimmjow said, leaping down and landing closest to Ichigo.

                Ichigo practically purred out loud, startling both Renji and Byakuya, who exchanged glances. They saw the hollow hole in the approaching figure’s stomach. He was an arrancar…but they felt nothing, no reiatsu, nothing from him.

                “Who are you?” Byakuya said.

                Grimmjow smiled. “Grimmjow Jagerjaquez, at your service, shinigami. Sexta espada of Aizen’s army. Call us the hollow retrieval service.”

                Ichigo dropped Zangetsu and drug him behind by the hilt wrapping as he walked toward Grimmjow and stared up at the taller arrancar. He released a loud burst of sound that sounded like a mixture between a hollow cry and a growl.

                “Aren’t you excitable, pet?” Grimmjow said, arching a blue brow at him. “You gonna fight me?”

                Ichigo growled in return and grinned at him before he leaped forward and bit him on the forearm hard enough to draw blood.

                Grimmjow stumbled back. “What the hell?” he said as Ichigo dropped to a crouch and licked blood off his mouth.

                Starrk smiled. “Don’t do anything, Grimmjow, he has marked you. You may be worthy, he hasn’t decided yet,” he said, dropping down smoothly, followed by Ulquiorra.

                “Does it matter? We must take him to Aizen-sama immediately. He is the extraneous variable,” Ulquiorra said.

                “You’re such a spoilsport,” Grimmjow said. “Can’t you see he’s beggin’ for it?”

                Starrk moved forward and held out his hand at Ichigo and he tilted his head to the side and then in a similar fashion bit into the back of his offered hand, leaving it bleeding. “Interesting, _mi amor_ , you have fangs when you bite.”

                “Ichigo!” came a female cry and Ichigo’s head snapped up to see Rukia who came running toward him.

She stared at the unusual scene before her. Ichigo was crouched before the three white-clad figures with blood dripping from his mouth and his sword held loosely at his side. His eyes were wide and flickering between glowing red and normal brown. He was still half dressed, and the deep black lines had connected around his back with the ones in the front.

                “What happened, Ichigo? Why…what…” she said, glancing between him and the three figures. “Why are there arrancar here? And why didn’t we know it, nii-sama?”

                Byakuya looked at her. “I do not know what is happening, and I am attempting to ascertain that information currently, Rukia.”

                Rukia moved up to Ichigo and kneeled carefully beside him on the ground. She planted both hands on his shoulders and looked into his eyes. “Ichigo, are you in there?”

                Ichigo blinked, the red glow flickering off and on a few times. “Rukia?” he said. “What’s happening? Why am I here...” he said and then his eyes fluttered and his head snapped around. His eyes fixed on the pale green eyed arrancar. He shook Rukia’s hands off him and leaped forward and bit into Ulquiorra’s forearm suddenly and staggered backward, wiping the blood off his mouth.

                “The hell…” he muttered. “What…I…”

                He then threw his head back and released a hollow sounding roar and fell to his knees. The three arrancar nodded at each other. Starrk moved forward and grabbed him by the arm. “Come, _mi_ _amor_. Your time here has ended. You are a danger to yourself and all those around you in this state.”

                Ichigo stared at him and his eyes slipped closed and he was completely slack in his grip. Starrk nodded to the others. He looked to the shinigami.

“ _Perdoname_ , I do not mean to intrude upon your home, shinigami, but the return of _un_ powerful beta is paramount to our kind. I fear if he remains with you, there will be much…destruction. As it is…I am unsure of the outcome.”

                “We must return him to Aizen-sama, Primera. That is our orders,” Ulquiorra said. “He is captain classed and vasto lorde class, he cannot be left to stand against him.”

                Grimmjow rolled his eyes. “Don’t act like you aren’t keen on fucking him, too. I plan to get at least one fight out of him before Aizen does something to him.”

                “ _Silencio_ , both of you,” Starrk said, hefting Ichigo’s body over his shoulder easily and taking his Zanpakutou with his free hand and resting it on the opposite shoulder. “We will deal with the situation in Las Noches. Right now, open the garganta, _por favor_.”

                “Wait, stop, what are you doing with him?” Renji yelled.

                Starrk looked at him. “You are his _amigo_ , _si_? Then I should tell you I do not know his fate. But I do not know my own destiny, _mi amigo_. I only know that Aizen waits in Las Noches. And Aizen is best known by you, so you must determine what you will do knowing that we take your _amigo_ to him because Aizen fears him above all else among the shinigami’s forces.”

                Starrk turned to enter the garganta and Byakuya, Rukia and Renji all moved to attack. Ulquiorra released a cero meant to divert them, and when the smoke cleared all of them were gone and the garganta was closed.


	2. Second Variable: Coyote

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Edited and Re-uploaded 5-2-14

                The moment they entered Las Noches, every single alpha among them, no matter their level of power, released a loud keening sound. The betas that were within close proximity to their own heat immediately entered that stage, and those that were either too old or too young, felt the need to come to the aid of the strongest of their kind that had just entered Las Noches. No, he was more than a simple beta, much more. Outside Las Noches, the lower and more base hollows went into an immediate mating season.

                And Coyote Starrk, the wolf soul stirring within him the second his flesh touched the beta, knew it all too well. The fact was that one like this had not been known in Hueco Mundo in so long that Starrk could not even remember when the last one lived. In fact, it was quite possible that he could be the beta of legendary prophecy. More than a simple beta, this…this was a prime beta, and more than anything, he was able to birth multiple cubs at one time. Beyond that, unlike defenseless betas, this one could defend himself, and would not go quietly.

Among the arrancar and hollows, they tended to group in a pack-like structure except the hollows that were more solitary in nature. In these packs, there were those that were considered prime betas, and then the first betas, who were powerful but in submission to the prime beta. The prime beta led the pack, with their mates, considered the prime alphas of the pack. The first alphas and betas served the prime beta. Under the firsts were the second alphas and betas who generally formed pairs, triads or groupings with each other and very rarely interacted with the primes of the group. Primes were recognized by their sheer power and ability to bear multiple cubs to increase the power of the pack. Most packs did not have primes, instead consisting of firsts and seconds and remaining relatively small. A prime meant the pack was large and strong, sometimes numbering in the hundreds. However, a true prime beta had not been born for so long that the packs were scattered, and no one remembered the last one that lived among the arrancar.

                Starrk moved through Las Noches with the beta across his shoulder and he felt the tension building. The sensation that someone had come that held great power; the knowledge that someone with more power than any other was strong and the place was practically vibrating with it. They came to Aizen’s throne room and entered immediately, after all, they were expected to return. Aizen would have known the moment the garganta opened into Hueco Mundo. Starrk saw both Gin and Tōsen were standing on either side of the throne Aizen had made for himself. There was a part of him that wondered if they had chosen wrong when they sided with the shinigami.

                “Report, Primera?” Aizen said curtly.

                “ _Si_ , Aizen-sama. We have brought back the shinigami. You were right to fear him; he has a high degree of potential for power. _Esta un_ vasto lorde hollow and has captain class shinigami powers. If he should be able access all his power in full, he would be very formidable,” Starrk said.

                “He has vasto lorde powers? So he is both hollow and shinigami?” Aizen asked, moving forward urgently.          

                This was what he had tried to do; bridge the gap between hollow and shinigami, and this…this one had done it on his own. “How does he activate the hollow powers?”

                “ _No se_ , he does not know and neither do we. The hollow and him seem to be separate individuals yet share the same body,” Starrk said with a nod. “But there is more, Aizen-sama, _esta una_ beta hollow.”

                Aizen waved his hand. “That does not concern me. I could not care any less about the strange mating habits of hollows. I’m more concerned about the hollow within in.”

                “ _Si, pero_ …”

                “No, put him here, I want to see him. I’ll have Szayel examine him and then we will go from there,” he said. “As I said, I do not care to listen about the issue any further, Primera.”

                “ _Si_ , Aizen-sama,” Starrk said with a sigh and laid him down on the floor. “As you see, the hollow made alterations to his body. He is more hollow in form than he was before the hollow changed him after the damage you did to his body.”

                Aizen stood and looked over the unconscious form. He was still in the black hakama and nothing else, having left without his kusodo. Starrk was still holding his Zanpakutou over his shoulder. Something inside him told him that he needed to hold the sword instead of giving it to the shinigami. He wasn’t sure why, but it was important. “This is true. Perhaps damaging his physical body is what brought the hollow to the surface…”

                Grimmjow frowned, not liking the way that Aizen’s thinking was going. “Aizen-sama, I do not think it wise to attempt to release that power,” he said, scratching the back of his head thoughtfully. “He might not be able to control it. And ya might end up with a mess…”

                Aizen glared at the sixth espada. “I believe I can handle one shinigami.”

                “ _Si_ , Aizen-sama, _pero_ it isn’t the shinigami we would worry about. It is the hollow,” Starrk said with an almost grimace. “He has matured over a day, from being a child to an adult, and with that maturity, the hollow has also rapidly reached maturity. Natural hollows tame their power as they grow; he has not had this chance…”

                Aizen shook his head. “Bring him to Szayel; we will set up the tests to confirm what you say. But if the only way to bring out this hollow of his is by bodily damage, that will be what I do. I need to see it. I am afraid that using the negacion when we had to meant I missed a great opportunity to witness what you did. I will see and analyze his power. And I will either mimic that power with the hogyuku or I will bed him to my will and make him my cero espada.”

                “Why do you wish to know his power, Aizen-sama?” Ulquiorra spoke up for the first time.

                Aizen stared at the cuarta espada for a long moment. “If I know his power I may be able to grant it to any new arrancar I create with the hogyuku. They would be more powerful than any of you.”

                Grimmjow and Starrk exchanged a glance. They knew what had happened to the arrancar that came before them. They were now the priverion espada. Then there was what had occurred with Neliel. Power in Aizen’s army was a fleeting thing, and both the sexta and the primera know that. The question was, would Aizen make more and better arrancar with this knowledge? Or would it even work the way he believed it would?

                “The hogyuku has to awaken, and it will take a year,” he said, holding up the blue orb. “Until then, I will study and experiment on this one and see how he came to be. As the hogyuku awakens, I’ll be able to start creating more arrancar. For now, though, I will use him for my own devices. I will break his will completely and he will answer to me in the end, if nothing else. I will show Soul Society who is in control of their weapon.”

                With that, Aizen turned and left, leaving the espada with the unconscious beta. Gin smiled at them in his eerie way. “Take ‘im ta Szayelporra. One a’ya three stay there wit ‘im all tha time. Don damage ‘im or let ‘im run.”

                Starrk nodded as the strange shinigami turned and left himself. He sighed and lifted Ichigo up again and walked with his two fellow espada to Szayel’s lab. The trip was silent and took a few minutes. He felt the tension on the air between the three of them. As they reached the lab, Starrk nodded at the other two.

                “I’ll take first watch with him, _mis amigos_. Please come in twelve hours to relieve me I would say, one of you,” Stark said with a sigh, shifting the weight of the unconscious form between his arms. “I am already tired, and would rather not go to sleep again only to wake up to come do this, _por favor_.”

                Grimmjow rolled his eyes. Starrk could read there was some sort of debate going on internally in the espada of destruction. “Whatever, I’ll come by then.”

                The other two left as quickly leaving Starrk at the entrance to the lab. He knocked on the door softly. “What is it?” came the annoyed voice of Szayel from the other side.

                “Aizen said to bring you the shinigami for testing,” he answered.

                The door flew open and the pink haired scientist, or more appropriately mad pink haired scientist, was grinning broadly. “Yes, yes, come on, bring him in, to the back,” he said, leading him to a rather uncomfortable looking metal table that had restraints built into the top and bottom.

                Around the table were several machines and instruments, and to the side were a couple of chairs, perhaps for the use of those watching whatever Szayel was doing. Around them, the white forms of Lumina and Verona hopped around, handing things up to their master and chittering about what was happening now.

                “Please, I am to stay with him. Do not be too cruel, he is…” Starrk didn’t know how to put it as he looked at the face slack with sleep.

                “What is he, is the very question,” Szayel said, attaching monitoring cords and pulling over a tray of what could be called torture instruments.

                “Wait, are you going to harm him?” Starrk said, a sudden surge of protective instinct overwhelming him suddenly.

                Szayel straightened his glasses and looked from Ichigo’s body to Starrk. He then gasped. “No, he’s a beta?” Szayel’s grin got even winder. “This is even better! I knew I sensed something…but my senses are a bit rusty since the madness overtook me…”

                Starrk shifted uncomfortably as Szayel began monitoring something else. “Holy hell, that is the strongest pheromone release I’ve ever seen…” he muttered under his breath. “The concentration of the secretion, it is…impossible!” he said, racing around pushing his fraccion out of the way and rushing about to get more instruments.

                “What are your plans?” Starrk asked again, the instinct to protect the beta beginning to take over so much that he was beginning to doubt his ability to hold himself back from attacking Szayel should he indicate he was going to do something to him.

                “Well, obviously, not going to kill him, or you’ll wring my neck. No, no, I won’t hurt him, so back off, big boy. Worst I’m going to do is take tissue and blood samples. And since he’s unconscious he won’t even feel it,” he said with a nod.

                Szayel moved around and continued, Starrk watching him intently. He took blood, a few muscle tissue samples, cerebral spinal fluid, skin, and hair samples. When he was done he took them over to the machines and began running the tests. He came back and grinned at Starrk madly.

“Times like these I wish the madness hadn’t erased my chance of becoming a beta that could be mated with,” he lamented.

                “You are _una_ active beta?” Starrk said. He’d always assumed that all the espada betas had been neutralized because none of them had ever gone into a heat cycle.

                “Yeah, but something happened when I became an espada. I don’t suffer the heat anymore. Perhaps it will return one day, it doesn’t matter. This is amazing. He has hollow traits, but only this dark black mark where a hollow hole should be. Stunning…the blending of shinigami and…” he turned back as something beeped. “What?” he said, looking at a readout. “But this…that’s not possible,” he muttered.

                Starrk looked up from beside the bed questioningly.

                “I have to go over these results. Will you stay with him while I am gone? I will have to determine what further tests are needed to confirm this…” he said walking out with the readouts in hand.

                Starrk sat down in the relatively comfortable chair beside the metal table and sighed. It wasn’t as comfortable as his pile of pillows, which was probably a good thing or he’d be asleep in a few minutes. There was a knock at the door.

“Enter,” he said and looked up to see Lillinette come into the room.

“Lazy bastard, what are you doing here?” she asked, popping a hand on her him and glaring at him.

“I am doing my duty, mija,” he said with a sigh. “I am to watch the shinigami and make certain he is not harmed and he does not escape.”

Lillinette narrowed her eyes at him. “You’re not telling me something.”

Starrk smiled. He had no idea why he tried to keep things from his other half. His own loneliness had spawned Lillinette, after all, a shattered piece of his soul.

“Si, the shinigami is more. He’s una beta. Una prime beta.”

Lillinette arched a brow. “Well, that’s something. Please, if you’re gonna be fucking, make sure I’m not present,” she said and shook her head as she headed out the door.

Starrk smiled to himself and leaned back in the chair and contemplated going to sleep. He was about to do just that when Ichigo groaned from his position on the table. Szayel had strapped down his wrists and ankles to keep him from rolling off, and now he was pulling against the restraints in a panic. Starrk knew that he would likely be distrusting of them at first. Of course, they were allied with Aizen, after all. Why would he trust them?

                “What? What’s going on?” he said franticly, pulling suddenly on the restraints hard enough to rattle the chains in the links. They were reiatsu sealing bindings, so he would not be able to escape them. “Where am I?”

                “Hush, _mi hijo, esta bien_. Do you remember?” he asked, moving beside him.

                Ichigo blinked and looked up into Starrk’s dark eyes. “Aizen, you brought me to Aizen,” he said, swallowing hard. Starrk was nearly rocked back on his heels by a sudden burst of the fear pheromone from him.

                “ _Si_ , but we had little choice. You are not a shinigami any longer, but you are not a hollow either. Our scientist is going over tests now. But you are a beta, that is why you reacted to us as you did, you are in a heat cycle and seeking a mate or mates to satisfy the need of the animal side,” he said, putting a hand over Ichigo’s bound one. He had to quell the release of the fear pheromone. It was driving him insane.

                “But…what…I don’t…oh why do you smell so good?” he asked, eyes widening and dilating immediately as he stared at Starrk.

                Starrk patted his hand gently. “Yes, it is the heat, you are looking for a worthy mate and I have been marked by you, remember?” he asked, holding up the hand Ichigo had bitten not too much before.

                Ichigo nodded and then a low purr worked its way from his throat. His eyes fluttered and he whimpered at Starrk with wide eyes. “Let me up, please…I need…I need you.”

                Starrk’s own eyes dilated at that moment completely with overwhelming lust because Ichigo released a sudden, incredibly powerful burst of pheromone that set the primera espada’s head spinning. He unhooked his hands and ankles quickly and before he even thought about what he was doing, he had pulled Ichigo into his lap in the chair he had previously been sitting. Ichigo’s breath was heaving as he leaned into Starrk’s neck and breathed deeply of his scent and made a strange purring sound. He jumped as he felt Starrk’s arousal building underneath him. Suddenly he swallowed and gasped and started to push away from him in a panic.

                Starrk’s grip was secure on his hips though and he held onto the struggling beta and finally pulled him against his body tightly. “What is it, _mi amor_?” he asked, frowning into the top of his head.

                “I…this…I’ve never…” Starrk could feel his heart pounding and the acceleration of his breathing. It was more than lust, it was fear. The scent came wafting off him stronger now and mixing in with the hollow’s release of arousal inducing pheromones. One of the primary duties of the alpha was to care for the beta, and so one of traits that all betas shared was the ability to release pheromones relaying their emotional state, as well as the stimulating ones.

                Starrk nodded and rubbed his larger hands over his back. “Hush now, it is fine. You are fine, and I promise to never hurt you. You are precious to me, do you understand?”

                There was a shiver through his body at the words. “But…but…I don’t know…do I have to do this…can’t I just…not…”

                Starrk sighed and hugged his body closer to him. “ _Mi amor_ , I will not do anything you do not wish, it is against our ways to take what is not offered. It is…taboo even among us arrancar to take a beta without their willingness. We are not animals like the lower hollows. And you can choose to ignore the heat, but it will become worse and worse until you claim your mates. You cannot claim a mate that you haven’t mated with first, _mi amor_.”

                Ichigo leaned into the warmth that he was giving him. It was strange. His body was on fire, and every nerve was burning with an overwhelming desire and he wasn’t sure what to do about it. He’d never really had sexual attraction to others, to be honest; he almost assumed he wasn’t attracted to anyone at all. He’d always found the advances of girls to be annoying, not arousing. Yet here he was, his body, his instincts forcing him into something he wasn’t sure he was ready for. He felt the difference in his body. He felt different, like every part of him was altered in some way. He was nowhere near human anymore; he knew that beyond a doubt. Everything about him had reached full maturation, because otherwise, the heat wouldn’t have activated. The hollow had at least conveyed that much. A hollow aging wasn’t like human ageing, so he had been catapulted into the ageless state that hollow and shinigami lived their lives in.

                “You…will be careful?” he whispered into Starrk’s ear, his voice shaking from the stress. The instincts were consuming him and he was burning from the inside out. He understood now why they called it a heat. He felt that if he didn’t satisfy that burning he would never survive.

                “ _Si, mi amor, si_ ,” Starrk breathed into his ear and untied the obi around Ichigo’s waist and tossed it to the side.

He then lifted him up enough to slide the loosened hakama off his slender legs. Starrk rubbed circles against the small of his back and felt the gooseflesh prick along him, and felt the alternating purring rumbles and whimpers of fear that were escaping him. The animal side was taking hold of him, he realized. Starrk shifted and was divested of his own hakama and holding the now nude beta straddling his lap. Ichigo leaned back and stared down with wide eyes. He looked up with a frantic expression on his face.

“That…I don’t know if this is a good idea,” he said, blinking rapidly. “That’s too big.”

Starrk smiled gently. “No, _mi preciouso_ , it is not. I will make you ready, and you are a beta, remember? You are now different there,” he said with a soft smile, suddenly snaking his hand off Ichigo’s hip and putting his fingers against his lips. Ichigo opened his mouth, unsure of what was happening. He enjoyed it though, playing with Starrk’s fingers with his tongue languidly. Starrk grinned as he removed them, only to move his hand underneath him and let his damp fingers play around the outside of his entrance. Ichigo squeaked at the first touch which made Starrk laugh, and he took the opportunity to press his middle finger into him with one swift move.

Ichigo thought it felt weird, but then it felt really good and he was pushing downward against him and whimpering more than before. “See, _mi amor_? Your body has changed, and made it easier to accept me…”

Ichigo had lost the ability to speak, and honestly didn’t notice as Starrk pressed two more fingers inside him and then touched something that made him yelp and pant. Whatever it was felt amazing… He was completely a slave to the feelings, and he only wanted one thing at that moment, and that was to take Starrk into him. He wanted more, immediately. He needed to feel him moving inside him. He had to have him inside him. He moved back and fell down onto him in a swift move that surprised Starrk into gasping.

“Oh, _mi dios_ ,” he muttered, and gripped Ichigo’s hips hard enough that they would surely bruise as his eyes rolled back into his head.

He honestly hadn’t done this in…forever. He felt Ichigo still and pant heavily. His three fingers were nothing compared to his girth and length. Then he sighed deeply and began to move, slowly at first, getting used to the sensations that were coursing through his body for the first time. He panted heavily and a now continuous purr emitted from somewhere inside his chest that ripped into a growl every few moments as he struck against his prostate. Now it was Starrk’s turn to become lost and speechless. He held on for dear life it seemed as he began riding him harder and faster. Ichigo’s arousal ground into Starrk’s stomach, but Ichigo held onto his shoulders and sought to stimulate that internal spot that made the world blank again and again, feeling the world sink around him like he was surfacing from a pond. Before long, he was seeing white entirely as his body spasmed against Starrk. Starrk gasped as the passage tightened down around him and he went over the edge with him immediately, releasing a gout of blinding reiatsu as he did so, his own rising to meet with the release of black from Ichigo.

Ichigo fell forward, panting against him and Starrk smiled, rubbing his back slowly. He hummed against Starrk’s neck. “Not so bad, after all,” he said, muffled by Starrk’s hair and neck.

“No, not so bad, come, let me clean you up,” he said, reaching over and finding a towel and cleaning both of them off slowly. Ichigo flinched at he cleaned away the fluids. Starrk felt the body weakening against him quickly. Starrk knew that after a mating, a beta would rest in preparation for the next one. He slipped his clothes back on and redressed his beta…the beta, he corrected. He wasn’t his yet. He sighed and put him back in the restraints, mostly so he didn’t fall from the high table in his sleep, and sat to wait for Grimmjow’s shift to begin.

Starrk was deeply asleep when he was jostled awake by the sexta espada.   He looked up and yawned, seeing Ichigo was still sleeping. He’d draped a blanket on the table before he put him upon it, and then laid another on top of him.

“I see you already had some fun,” Grimmjow said.

“The reiatsu. I’m sure the release was…noticeable,” Starrk said, standing with a yawn.

“Just a bit. But hey, there’s more. Aizen’s sending Harribel on another recon and retrieval mission. Seems he’s in the mood for more experimentation. He wants that ice dragon captain, something about trying to use the ice dragon. Anyway, maybe you can send someone with her that is sympathetic to our plight,” Grimmjow said, cutting his eyes over toward Ichigo.

“I will see if I can do something,” Starrk said with a nod, leaving quietly.

He hadn’t gone far when he saw someone that would definitely not be missed, and he was someone that would be willing to help.

“Ggio,” he called, waving to the short arrancar. “Are you busy?”

Ggio shook his head. “No, Primera. Did you need something?”

“Si, Tres is going to Soul Society, I would like you to accompany her and fulfill a mission for me. I wish for you to find someone you can trust and who will listen, and tell them that their friend, Ichigo, the beta we returned with, is in grave danger. Aizen plans to torture him until the hollow emerges from him. It may be in their interest to work with us to stop their rogue shinigami,” he said with a nod at him. “I will inform Lord Barragan that you are under my orders. Now please, find Tres and go with her and her fraccion.”

Ggio frowned but nodded. “Sure…”

Ggio was confused. It wasn’t unusual to be asked by some of the espada who had no fraccion to do things for them, but to be approached by the primera, that was something incredible. He smiled to himself as he thought that this was his chance to prove his worth.

“Take these,” he said, handing him the dampening fields that would keep him undetected. “You will need them to go undetected at first until you find someone to take you to their sou-taichou. I will inform Tres of the fact you will join her. She is going to retrieve the ice captain. You will find someone else.”

Ggio nodded. “Primera, this sounds somewhat like I am trusting our enemy not to kill me on sight.”

Starrk nodded. “You are, pero they are shinigami. Present no threat, and offer to help them, and they will not kill you immediately. They are mired in a sense of justice and will want to prove guilt of wrong doing before they execute someone. No, they will put you in a cell, no doubt. Convince them of your ability to aid them against Aizen. Give them any information they wish on the espada and our abilities, including on your own Lord Barragan. This is much larger than allegiance to the segunda espada, remember this.”

Ggio headed off toward his room to ready for such an outing. Starrk went to see Harribel of the plan. He quickly located the Tres espada.

“Tres,” he said and nodded to her. “May I have una momenta of your time?”

Harribel turned and looked at him, her face, as always, inscruitable under the jacket and the bone mask. “What is it, Primera? To see you outside your rooms is unusual, and to have you ask for something even more unusual. Since when do you have enough energy to care about things other than your next nap?”

Starrk smiled. “Si, that is true, mi tres. I am sure you sensed the beta.”

She nodded. “I did, but it is not my concern. I am already mated.”

“It is your concern, he is una prime beta,” he said, yawning again.

Harribel arched a brow. “A prime beta hasn’t been born in many long years. Are you certain?”

“The reiatsu release makes me certain,” he said with a small smile.

She nodded. “You wish to claim him as mate.”

“Si, but Aizen intends to torture him. You know the consequences of inflicting such pain on a beta of that power could be. His calls will drive the lesser arrancar insane. We must do what we can to stop this from happening, Tres. I have asked Ggio Vega to go with you to Soul Society. He has been instructed to find a trusted person to ask for help. He may not be able to return with you when you complete your mission,” Starrk said with a lazy grin.

Harribel looked thoughtful. “You believe with a prime beta we could organize a pack powerful enough to no longer need Aizen.”

Starrk shrugged. “No se, Tres, pero it may be so. Especially if he is the uniting force of prophecy.”

“Really? A shinigami?” Harribel said, feeling doubtful that such a weighty legend could be fulfilled by someone that was a shinigami.

“He is not all shinigami. What better to unite us than someone that can ensure our safety completely by making alliances and treaties with Soul Society? If we are not hunted by them, we have much better chances of surviving.”

Harribel nodded slowly. “You would appear to be correct, Primera. I will take Ggio, though I will not guarantee his safety or his return.”

Starrk nodded. “That is fine, Tres, as I said, I doubt he will return with you. My hope is that once he is captured by the gotei 13, they will listen. It is risky, but it is necessary. Especially once you capture another of their captains. They will want to do something about Aizen.”


	3. Third Variable: Grimmjow

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edited and Re-uploaded 5-2-14

Grimmjow watched as the beta slept. He was truly morphing into a completely different creature than he had been before. Grimmjow wasn’t entirely sure what he was turning into. He’d never seen anything like it. Creatures were always one thing or another, but this… While he didn’t have the hollow mask, or the hollow hole, his body was marked with both. His face carried the three red streaks down each cheek and his upper body the black lines and the thick black circle in the center where a hollow hole would have been. He found himself standing over the table he was strapped to and running tentative fingers over the markings. He looked up as Szayel came back in and began moving things around.

“You look all excited,” Grimmjow said.

“He’s amazing,” he breathed. “He’s a Quincy.”

Grimmjow frowned. “What? He’s a shinigami, and a hollow.”

Szayel grinned. “That’s what’s so amazing, he’s both, actually, all three, he’s some sort of amazing hybrid I’ve never seen, this is fascinating!”

Grimmjow frowned and thought. “I didn’t think that was possible.”

“Apparently, it is. My only guess is that one parent was a Quincy, and the other parent was a shinigami from Soul Society. Neither parent was a ‘simple’ human…” he said, smiling at Grimmjow.

“Wait, all that he’s a hollow too?” the sexta said, blinking. “That’s a lot of power in one individual,” he said.

“That’s why he’s releasing such strong attractants. He’s going to become so powerful that I doubt any could stand against him when he reaches his full power,” Szayel said, attaching electrodes to his head and moving behind him, pushing away his various fraccion who were trying to assist him.

“Which is what Aizen wants to know,” Grimmjow said, watching carefully as Szayel ran the required tests. He was truly fascinated by the whole situation. The chance to study something so unusual was rare and he would never get this chance again. Especially once Aizen was finished with him.

Szayel looked up at that thought. “If he goes through with this plan, Grimmjow, I’m not sure what will happen. If this hollow fully releases, and from what you described, it didn’t, I don’t know that Aizen can even begin to understand the consequences. And if he refuses to give him the hollow, and Aizen tortures him, we all may be driven insane by his calls for help.”

He received another bundle of papers from the machine beside him and nodded to Grimmjow. “Okay, try not to blow up my lab while I’m gone…” Szayel said and headed out, face lined with worry still. Grimmjow heard the door lock behind him as he left.

He was alone, sort of, now. He wasn’t sure what to do while he waited for Ulquiorra to take over, so he pulled the chair up beside the table. He looked at the beta again and then put his head down on the table beside Ichigo’s hip. He blinked slowly a few times, then he closed his eyes and drifted off. Something in the room was making him sleepy, and he wondered if it might have something to do with Ichigo’s own rest period and release of pheromones. His knowledge of betas was very limited, but he knew they had to rest between mating with their alphas. Wait, he wasn’t his alpha, he hadn’t even claimed him yet.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

“Why are you going with us?” Mila Rose said, crossing her arms at the shorter arrancar.

Ggio shrugged. “Primera told me to accompany you. See, he gave me the reiatsu blocking equipment.”

Harribel shrugged as she entered. “Primera indicated that he wanted this arrancar to go with us as an observer. Come, we go there now. I am to retrieve the tenth division captain with your assistance. Do not engage any but our target. Stick to the plan we set in motion, Ggio will not interfere or participate in our plan at all. If he is separated from us, he is on his own. He understands this.”

They set off together, and Ggio couldn’t help but feel out of place with the three female fraccion. He had noticed they were all on edge since Ichigo had come to their realm. He knew, obviously, that the three fraccion were all betas and the Tres espada was an alpha. He also sensed that they were mated already, and that was why Tres had no interest in the beta. After they exited the garganta far outside the main part of soul society, Ggio followed the group for a while. Then, something caught his attention. He frowned and took off into the wood after it. It was something fast, almost faster than him, and in a few moments he found himself staring at a woman in a black shihakuso and a white haori. Her hair was short for the most part, except two long decorative braids, and her sword was sheathed at the small of her back.

“Who are you?” she said, staring at him. He turned his head to the side and looked around. He was surrounded. Impressive.

“Ggio Vega, fraccion of Segunda Espada, Lord Barragan. However I’m here at the behest of the Primera Espada, Coyote Starrk, on his mission,” he said with a nod. “I know I am surrounded, and I have no idea who you are. However, I am here to inform you of the intentions of Aizen in reference to the kidnapped shinigami substitute as well as the ice captain.”

The woman, who Ggio thought was incredibly attractive, moved forward, holding her zanpakutou out toward him. “Why should I believe you?”

Ggio shrugged, scratching his head under the edge of the fanged mask. “Don’t have to believe me, but it would be in your best interest to hear me out. Not like I can compete with a captain, now can I? And however many shinigami you have around here.”

She stared for a minute then sheathed her sword. “I’m Soi Fong, captain of the second division and the leader of the punishment force. Come with me.”

She turned and Ggio followed her, a small grin tugging at his mouth. He wasn’t sure if it had something to do with the pheromones he’d been inundated with at Las Noches from the beta, but his eyes could not leave the woman in front of him. He wanted nothing more than to tackle her to the ground and rip her shihakuso off her and take her… He shook his head. Stupid pheromones.

Harribel and her fraccion had little difficulty finding the small captain. He was walking through an open area when he stopped to see a black butterfly come down to him. Harribel used the distraction and she and all three of her fraccion leaped down and surrounded him. She flicked open a garganta and The other three grabbed him and hit him with a syringe that Szayel had given them. He honestly hadn’t had a moment to react to the unexpected attack. They heard a scream and saw a woman flashing toward them, but the garganta was closing already, Harribel with the captain slung over one shoulder as she walked away. Ggio had disappeared, so that was that. She had told Primera that he would not be waited on.

Ggio by that time had been put into a cell and was waiting when he heard the alarms going off around him. He figured that Harribel had been successful because they hadn’t done anything with the information that four other arrancar had snuck in with him. He wasn’t sure they actually believed him. He supposed now they would. He looked up to see the petite captain of the second standing with a very old man, the head captain he guessed. He stood and approached the bars.

“Your intelligence was correct,” the old man said. “Why are you here?”

“The Primera thinks Aizen is a danger to us as well as you. He intends to harm the beta, and as an alpha, he cannot abide by such a thing,” he said with a shrug. “He cannot come himself, and he has no fraccion of his own, so he sent me, a fraccion of the Segunda Espada, knowing that I will likely not be missed, especially since Lord Barragan has many fraccion.”

He looked up as a door opened to reveal another petite dark haired female and a tall redheaded male with tattoos. The second captain acknowledged them and then turned back. “What do you mean, harm the beta? Who is that?” she asked.

Rukia cleared her throat. “Ichigo, he’s the beta. Why are they going to harm him?” she asked.

“Aizen wants to initiate the physical alteration into the hollow. His injuries led him to release the hollow partially before, so Aizen believes if he does enough physical damage to him, the hollow will emerge and he can bring the hollow to his side, and utilize him. He also believes he may be able to learn how he came to be and make more powerful arrancar with the knowledge and the hogyuku. To do so, however, would require extensive torture, to avoid outright killing him,” Ggio said, sitting down again in the single chair.

The second raven haired woman turned to the red haired man and Ggio could read the pain in her eyes. “If he is your friend, I suggest you assist the Primera in his plan to extricate him from Aizen. The Primera will not abide to see him harmed, he’s already claimed him during the heat, so he has a vested interest in him as a potential mate. I believe the sexta and cuarta are also among those that will be claiming him. For the hollows, such a powerful mate…it hasn’t occurred in very long years. And even his mere presences has sent all the arrancar to either rutting or heat for a mate, even if they are far below the beta’s power level.”

“Claiming him?” the dark haired one said again, her eyes wide. “Oh, we have to get him out, Sou-taichou, please,” she said. The red head patted her back gently.

“What is this plan you speak of?” Soi Fong said with a frown, narrowing her eyes at Ggio.

“It isn’t my plan, and I don’t know much, just that Primera wanted me here to make contact with you and tell you of the situation. He wants you to know that he cannot ignore Aizen’s plans, because it would tear everything apart to do so. This…this alpha and beta thing…it is at our very core as animals. It cannot be ignored, even by the strongest of our number. In fact, our strongest are more likely to fall under the beta’s sway and attempt to protect him. But we need someone behind us if we are to succeed in revolting against the shinigami,” he said with a sigh. “Alone we may not be able to handle all the variables.”

“I will present the information to the captains. Fuku-taichou Abarai, remain with the arrancar. Kuchiki Rukia, accompany me to the meeting,” the head captain said with a nod to each in turn.

Rukia left behind Soi Fong and the head captain. “Ggio?” Renji said. “Renji’s my name,” he said, pulling up a chair and sitting in front of the cell. “You really want to help him?” he asked, looking at the arrancar.

“I’m an alpha, I have no choice, to be honest. It is defend the beta or die,” he said with a shrug.

“It is that important?” Renji asked, frowning.

Ggio nodded. “It is, especially for one with such power. He may be the first prime beta in hundreds of years to be born. It doesn’t happen often that there is a beta we all are affected by. Your Ichigo is one.”

“If we work together, what happens?” Renji asked.

“No idea, but I know that things can’t continue as they are. The beta’s cries will drive them nuts in Las Noches, and I may feel the effects through the barriers of the spaces between. To ignore a beta’s pleas for help…especially one like him…I don’t think they’ll hold on once Aizen begins to torture him. The instincts will kick in and the entire place will explode,” Ggio said with a sigh.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Grimmjow came awake with a start and realized he was growling. His own growling had woken him from this lazy slumber. He winced at his hand were the bone fragment mask had dug into the flesh of his arm. He blinked and thought he was going to be overcome by whatever smell was coming from nearby. He blinked and realized it was the beta. He looked up to see he was still sleeping, and Szayel had left him secured to the table at the wrist and ankle to keep him from tumbling off the thing, or getting up and becoming lost in Las Noches.

He moaned in his sleep and shifted and Grimmjow almost melted as his hakama became tighter around him. The combination of the sound and the smell was driving him insane. He looked up to see Ichigo’s eyes flutter open and he saw that they were wide and dilated nearly black. “G-grim…” he muttered, his breath suddenly coming in faster pants. “Oh, it burns,” he whimpered. “Please, make it stop…”

Grimmjow had the restraints off within a moment and had flipped him onto his stomach on the table with his legs hanging off the side. “Hrm, you want something, little beta?” he asked.

His only answer was a whimper and a wafting of fear off his body. Grimmjow frowned. He was afraid of him… That wouldn’t do, he couldn’t have him fear him, that would ruin all chances to give kits to him. So instead of being rough and harsh like he wanted so desperately to be, he found himself lifting him up and sitting him on the table in front of him and looking at him.

“You fear me,” he said, softly, running his large hands over his arms and shoulders with incredible gentleness for his size. The beta’s eyes were wide and still dilated with lust, but he caught the glimmer of tears and the unbridled fear that lay underneath. “What is it?” he said quietly, squeezing his upper arms and looking closely at his pale face.

“I…I…don’t know…it’s still new…and I…I’m afraid still,” he said, looking away from Grimmjow toward the floor. “I…I feel the need and it frightens me to feel like this, and then you…you are all…” He didn’t finish his sentence, just swallowed nervously and stared at a point on the floor.

“Shh, you must relax,” Grimmjow said, reaching up and tipping his head upward to lock cerulean eyes with brown. “You already did this with Starrk. Why are you scared now?”

Ichigo tried to look away, but Grimmjow held his chin in a firm grip. “It…it happened like that and I don’t even know, but he was nice, and you’re not all nice like he was and…” he said finally, a few tears dripping down his cheeks.

Grimmjow reached up with his other hand and wiped them away. “Ichigo, none of us will hurt you. We can’t.”

“N-not on p-purpose…but I’m not all hollow…l-like you are…” he said, chewing on his lip in an agitated manner. Grimmjow understood. They were often violent animals, and restraint wasn’t one of their strong suits.

“Alright, here,” Grimmjow said and picked him up and shucking the hakama off his body in one quick move before putting him back down on the metal. Ichigo gasped at the cold metal on his now bare flesh. Despite his words, Ichigo was scared of what he was doing. He was so strong, and right now, Ichigo would be helpless because he was a slave to the instincts no matter how rough he got with him. In fact, considering the violence with which the sixth espada presented himself, he was surprised he hadn’t already taken when he desired and left him.

Grimmjow saw it all written clearly in the beta’s face. The mixture of want and need, twisted with fear and trepidation. He wanted to take him over the table then and there, but he also wanted him to stop being afraid of him. For some reason, his biggest desire at the moment wasn’t concentrated on the throbbing in his hakama, it was to stop the beta’s fear. It was amazing; even with the constant release of the concentrated pheromones he was releasing, the only thought he could concentrate on was making the smell of fear go away. The need to protect him, to keep him safe, it was so strong it was nearly palatable.

He smiled at him though, pushing the orange hair behind the beta’s ear and began to pepper kisses down the side of his neck and into his shoulder. He felt the shuddering go through him at the gentle touches. Grimmjow splayed his hands across his back and pressed him inward, following the line of his collarbone across and dipping his tongue briefly in the middle and running his tongue up his throat to suck gently on his adam’s apple. Ichigo gasped under the ministrations, his head falling backward. To Grimmjow’s relief, the fearful smell was starting to fade. He moved his hands from his back and undid his own hakama, kicking them behind him as his hands back to the warm body in front of him. His hands ran down to the small of his back and gripped his ass for a second before he lifted him up in one swift movement and turned to pin him against the wall. His mouth was busy still sucking at the beta’s neck as he moved him.

Instinct had taken over and Ichigo lifted his legs and wrapped them around the powerful alpha’s waist. A loud purring sound reverberated through Ichigo’s chest and Grimmjow responded in kind before he shifted his hands and moved one underneath him, sliding his finger down the crevice slowly, teasingly, until he began to circle the entrance below. The response was instant; Ichigo groaned and arched back against the wall, his own arousal pressing into Grimmjow sharply. Grimmjow grinned against the flesh he was licking and sucking a deep purple mark on before he moved his head up and captured his panting mouth, swallowing a moan as he slid his middle finger inside the beta’s writhing body. Ichigo was barely able to contain the sounds as Grimmjow slowly worked a second finger inside, crooking his fingers and brushing against that single spot that made the world blank entirely. Ichigo whimpered into his mouth as Grimmjow’s tongue touched every point in Ichigo’s mouth all at once it seemed.

“What is it?” Grimmjow asked, pulling back, stilling his fingers, now three of them and looking down at the debauched mess the beta had become. This was far better than a hard fast fuck he had in mind to begin with. True, he would have gotten his release already, but this was far more arousing than he could have imagined. The look on his face, sweating with orange strands plastered to his forehead and cheeks, a deep red stain to his cheeks, and his pupils completely blown, it made Grimmjow want to stay there forever, staring into his face.

“P-please…” he gasped. Grimmjow grinned a wicked grin, removing his fingers and readjusting their position against the wall. Ichigo’s legs tightened and his body rocked against him urgently. “Please, just…”

“What is it? I want to hear what you want, beta,” Grimmjow said, grin still in place.

Ichigo’s mouth trembled. “Do…that…” he panted, eyes rolling up and face turning a deeper crimson than Grimmjow thought possible.

“I’m afraid you need to be more specific,” he said as Ichigo’s hands found purchase on the collars of his jacket and the beta’s throbbing need rocked against him.

Ichigo whimpered then, a low sound that ended with a deep purring. “G-Grimm….please…now…I need you…”

“What do you need?” he asked, fingers running up and down the damp crevice of his body, pausing to tease the now moist entrance and then pressing into the perineum before following the line of his scrotum up to the base of his cock between them.

His head fell into Grimmjow and he panted against the larger alpha’s collarbone. “Fuck me, please, now, fuuuck…” he moaned as Grimmjow lifted him higher before he slammed his full length into him in one swift motion, pinning him against the wall with more force than before.

Ichigo’s head fell back and cracked loudly against the wall, but he didn’t care about the sudden pain that flared in that spot, all his concentration was on the incredibly full sensation as Grimmjow began to move. It wasn’t a slow, steady pace like Starrk had allowed him to set, it was fast and brutal, but deadly accurate as he slid against his prostate with every other stroke. Grimmjow held him up one handed, his right hand gripping his hip tight enough to bruise, while his left supported some of his weight against the wall beside his head. Ichigo was sure that his hips were going to be purple before they were done with him. He couldn’t find it in him to care at the moment, though. Grimmjow moved, grabbing Ichigo’s left leg and pulling it up and over his shoulder, getting a much deeper angle on him as he bent his body in the awkward position. Thankfully, Ichigo had always been flexible, but this was certainly testing his limits. He let out a long low keening sound as he felt his end rushing toward him rapidly.

“Not yet, beta,” Grimmjow growled and shifted again, moving his left hand to grip Ichigo’s base and stave off the coming orgasm. Ichigo whined loudly in response, his release stopped moments before it occurred.

“I’m not done yet,” Grimmjow said, moving again, this time, switching his left hand to hold him up against the wall and using his right to twist Ichigo’s right leg up and over as well. The resulting squeal from the beta was quite satisfying, he thought. “That feel right?” Grimmjow breathed into his neck as his hand held onto him to keep him from going over the edge just yet. His only response was a long drawn out moan.

Without losing his position buried deep inside the beta, Grimmjow moved, grabbing both his hips and spinning him over swiftly. Ichigo’s hands slapped hard into the wall to keep his face from impacting with it as he was flipped, his legs dropping and almost reaching the floor. Grimmjow moved, leaning over a little and let Ichigo’s feet support some of their weight as he increased his pace, thrusting harder and faster into the body under him. By this point, Ichigo was incoherent, muttering random phrases that Grimmjow no way to interpret. Grimmjow released him, and once again, his release was rushing toward him, and he was panting and moaning constantly.

“Come, beta, come for me,” Grimmjow growled into his ear, and that was all it took.

Ichigo went over without Grimmjow having stroked him at all, his body clenching around the larger espada and Grimmjow growled, thrusting in hard and fast as his own completion crashed over him, nearly sending him to his knees with the force of the reiatsu alone. The blue and black flash was blinding to them both, because it was had both inside and outside their minds. Grimmjow held himself up with one arm against the wall, the other curled under Ichigo’s midsection, holding him up, he realized, as the beta panted with his face pressed into the wall and both hands pressed flat against it.

Grimmjow exhaled long and low and pulled out of him slowly, still supporting the beta’s weight with one arm. He spun him around again, and Ichigo once more wrapped his legs around him, and Grimmjow smiled as he buried his sweaty face in the hollow of his neck. Grimmjow could still feel his heart beating through his skin.

“Ah, there, now, you seemed to enjoy it,” Grimmjow said, adjusting his grip and moving over enough drop into the chair.

He used his foot to grab his own hakama where he’d kicked them and managed to shimmy into them without dropping Ichigo, which was a feat because he felt like dead weight now. He succeeded and sat down and tipped the beta’s face upward to find it completely slack in an exhausted sleep. A few moments later, Grimmjow was drowsing when he felt something soft drop onto him. He blinked and saw Szayel looking down at them with a soft grin.

“Stay there, Grimmjow. I’ll have Ulquiorra come back in a few hours. Let him sleep like that,” the pink haired espada said with a nod, leaving them alone. His experiments could wait a few hours so he could rest. Fuck Aizen. Szayel stopped at the doorway and looked back at the pair. Wait, did he just think that? Aizen was everything to him…

Grimmjow started to argue but one look at the beta’s sleeping face made him realize he didn’t want to leave him. He wanted to stay and protect him and make sure no one made him afraid like he had been earlier.


	4. Fourth Variable: Ggio

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Edited and Re-uploaded 5-2-14

Rukia was not pleased with the occurrences that had happened recently. She was exhausted already and the day wasn’t even half done. They had a group of humans in Soul Society, one of which had been kidnapped and drug to Hueco Mundo and was someone she cared about as much as her brother. She still wasn’t recovered from her time without her powers. She was standing near the doorway at the captain’s meeting as the head captain spoke to the gathered captains.

“I have decided that retrieval of the boy and Captain Hitsugaya is imperative. However, it will be a stealth mission so the group sent will be minimal and fast. I also am not going to risk any other captains on the mission; we are already down three captains plus Hitsugaya-taichou. For this reason, I am assigning the fuku-taichou of second, sixth, and twelfth to accompany a special strike force.”

Just then, the doors opened beside Rukia and Renji, Omeada, and Nemu all entered and took places to the other side. Behind them entered Uryuu Ishida and two people no one in the room expected to see.

“ _Yare, yare_ , seems that not much has changed,” Urahara said with a grin at the captains who were staring at him. He glanced around and popped his fan open. “I appear to have been summoned to retrieve my student from Heuco Mundo,” he said with a grin behind his fan, eyes shaded.

“Your student?” Kurosuchi said with a snarl. “You trained him?”

“Hai, Mayuri-san, I did, well, I did and so did Yoruichi-san. So I suppose he is our student?” he said snapping his fan closed and glancing at the purple haired woman beside him.

Yoruichi smiled and put a hand on her hip and scanned the room. “Hopefully, we’ll return your fuku-taichou intact. Depends on their skills, however,” she said, glancing back at the three lieutenants. “We will leave in one hour. Be ready,” she said and turned and left with Urahara and Uryuu.

“Why is the Quincy going with them?” Byakuya said, turning toward the head captain.

“He is not a member of the gotei 13 and is not under my command. He will do as he wishes, and Urahara has agreed he can come with them. His intentions are not mine to know,” the head captain said. “For now, Soi Fong-taichou, interrogate the prisoner and get as much information from the arrancar as you can. I want you to remain with him at all times. Kuchiki Rukia, you will be responsible for the remaining humans, Inoue and Sado. I wish for them to remain in Soul Society for the time being. Kuchiki-taichou, coordinate with the other captains and strengthen security. Kurosuchi-taichou, find a way to detect these arrancar despite the reiatsu suppression items they are carrying. You may retrieve the items from the second’s cells from the arrancar we have in custody. Dismissed!” he said and everyone scattered, going to their duties.

Rukia put a hand on Renji’s arm. “Renji, please, bring him back,” she said quietly.

Renji nodded and leaned forward to kiss the top of her head. “I will, Rukia. I will.”

Her face colored as she watched him leave with the other two lieutenants going on the mission. She went back to the barracks the others were in and met with them. Uryuu had returned and was in an intent discussion with Orihime.

“Are you certain?” he asked.

She nodded. “I think it is possible.”

“What is possible?” Rukia asked with a frown.

Uryuu looked up. “She thinks her power of rejection may be able to reverse what the glove did to my powers. Return me to the state I was before I released the power.”

Urahara walked in. “It might work, Ishida-san. Certainly worth a try,” he said with a smile.

They all sat down to wait it out to see if would work. Almost the hour had gone by when the shield shattered and Orihime sat back, exhausted by the effort. Uryuu felt different and he stood and dropped the cross from his sleeve, immediately summoning his bow once more.   “It worked,” he gasped. “I don’t know if it will last, but at least I’ll be useful in Hueco Mundo.”

Before long, the group of six stood together. Just before the garganta was opened Rukia came up and Renji looked at Urahara. Urahara winked at him from under his hat and gave him a curt nod.

“Oh, just a moment,” Urahara said, snapping his fan closed and kneeling to check on something with the gateway. “I must check something first…”

Renji took the chance to run over to Rukia. He put both hands on her shoulders and looked at her. “Rukia, before I go, I just want to tell you I’m sorry.”

Rukia looked up at him with a frown. “For what?”

“Being an idiot and a fool. I love you. I’ve loved you from the day we met on the streets. The only reason I turned away from you at the academy is I wanted you to have a happy life, and I thought Kuchiki-taichou could give it to you. I decided then and there that in order to deserve your love and affection, I would surpass him. It was stupid and I should have said so before now,” Renji said, leaning over and pulling the surprised shinigami into a passionate kiss and then letting go and rushing toward the opening garganta to head through following the others.

Uryu had little trouble forging the path, despite his recent power drain. He was pleased. Having his power back meant everything to him. They saw the end and Omeada was in the front, exiting first. Everyone froze however when they heard the scream the shinigami let out. In a flash they were all out, and Urahara had slain a vasto lorde classed hollow with a lion’s head that had ripped Omeada’s throat out. Apparently, the moment he exited, the creature leaped on him, utterly silent and hidden.

“This is why I said to be careful,” Urahara said staring down at the dead shinigami. “Soi Fong won’t be pleased, but I told him to let me exit first. He chose to ignore my request.   The rest of you, I am the leader of this group. Listen to me, or you will end up dying. Understood?”

There were nods of assent and they moved on, flashing away. Yoruichi moved up beside Urahara. “Little harsh, don’t you think?” she asked.

Urahara grinned wickedly at her. “You like me best when I’m harsh, my dear,” he answered.

She shook her head and sighed. “Well, that is true…” she said and flashed ahead of him quite a ways.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Ggio sat and stared at the ceiling. There wasn’t much else to do. He heard the door open and he saw the petite captain enter and he smiled. Call it pheromones or whatever, but she was a hot little number, there was no doubt about it. But the best part was just by looking at her, he could tell she was as deadly as she was beautiful. So very cliché, but what the hell, it was true. What he wanted to do that that lithe petite body of hers…

“Taichou, are you well? Have sent a team to Las Noches?” he asked, still staring at the ceiling.

“A group has gone after them,” she said, seating herself and crossing her legs, looking determinedly away from him.

Ggio looked down and looked her over, his alpha hormones surging immediately and he growled low in his throat. She frowned and stared at him.

He cleared his throat. “Sorry, the whole thing with the beta still affects me.”

“So why are you growling at me?” she asked with a snort.

“Shinigami and arrancar aren’t that dissimilar, taichou. You…seem to have triggered my hormones like the beta did,” he said with a shrug, a faint pink tinging his cheeks.

She arched a brow at him and sighed. “Really. What exactly is this thing with this…Kurosaki and this beta thing?”

Ggio nodded and thought for a moment because of course they’d be interested. “I suppose you have to remember we’re animals. Collections of base instincts, the only one of which you concern yourself with is our instinct to consume souls to fill the emptiness. Once we become arrancar, that drive has lessened because we’ve become closer to shinigami. However, that doesn’t remove everything. We still are arrancar, and we show that when we assume our resureccion form. Mine is related to a tiger. Similar to how you shinigami have a zanpakutou spirit that often takes the shape of an animal or a being of some sort.”

“What do they want with Hitsugaya-taichou?” she asked.

“That I am unsure of. I believe what Tres said was something about the ice dragon being of interest to Aizen. Considering his plan of torturing the beta to near death to see how much power he holds, I do not know what sort of thing he has in mind for your captain. They were, however, equipped to deal with his unique abilities when the retrieved him. The Eighth espada, Szayel, is a scientist. He crafted the reiatsu masking devices that got us into the area undetected. He’s a genius but completely insane. However, Primera indicated he wished to help the beta and so far had refused to do any testing that would harm him. Szayel is a beta himself, or at least he used to be before he became an espada. I would say he has forged some sort of connection with the beta,” Ggio said with a sigh.

“You keep calling him the beta. You realize he has a name.” Her eyes were hard he saw.

Ggio smiled. “It is what it is, dear taichou. He is the beta. There is nothing else to it. He will be given kits or cubs by someone before long, and will birth babies that will have power of arrancar and shinigami combined. He is more precious to the alphas, to us, than anything that has ever lived, can you understand that?” he asked.

“So you would mate him,” she said matter-of-factly.

Ggio laughed out loud, a snort at first, then a full laugh before he sat up and wiped the tears from his eyes. “I wish!”

Soi fong frowned and stared at him. “Why do you laugh? You talk about him like he is some great prize, yet you laugh at the suggestion to mate with him.”

“He’d kill me!” he said, sighing. “Way too powerful. He’d take one look at me and crush me for having the gal to even suggest I could mate him.”

“Your betas will kill an alpha?” she asked, leaning forward on her knees.

“Of course, if the alpha is stupid enough to approach one out of their league. The whole point is for the beta to find the strongest alpha that can take care of both the beta and the babies. The beta is fine at taking care of him or herself most the time, but once heavy with kits, they’re defenseless, all of their reiatsu is diverted to gestation and holding the souls in stasis until time to birth them. So if the beta can kill an alpha, they were far too weak for them,” he said with a small smile. “I’m powerful. However, no way could I take on the likes of that beta. He’s got such a strong, sweet scent, and…” He blinked and rose his head and growled.

“What’s the matter?” she asked.

“The fabric between the worlds opened for a moment, your team must have opened a garganta, and I could sense him. He’s mated with another one of the espada, the reiatsu felt like the sexta. What I felt was the residual release of the reiatsu and pheromones. Fascinating to feel it from so far away. I know when Primera mated him, the release was so overpowering that several of the lesser arrancar were driven to the ground from the sheer power. However, Primera is powerful. He remains in a shielded room because there are lower ranking arrancar who die in his presence from the sheer force of his reiatsu. That is the reason he rarely leaves Las Noches,” Ggio said with a small smile.

Soi Fong looked around the room then got up and found a freshly laid out tea cart which she used to get herself a tea and one for the arrancar. She passed it through the bars and he thanked her and sipped it gingerly.

“So any female will set off these alpha impulses you have?” she asked, sipping her own and leaning back to cross her legs.

He shook his head. “Not at all, I was surprised to sense the pheromones in the shinigami, let alone anyone here. No, it would be a match of power as well as compatibility that would make a desire to mate happen.”

She sipped her tea and nodded. “What more can you tell me of what Aizen intends for the Kurosaki boy?”

“I wouldn’t say he is a boy anymore,” Ggio said with a grin.

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“He’s reached full maturity by hollow standards. Since we live longer, a fully matured arrancar would be in their twenties. Mating heats only occur then. Whatever happened to him accelerated him into becoming matured. But I don’t mind not having him as a beta. I always liked female forms more. Granted, we mate with whatever since our gender is sort of, well, nonexistent,” he said with a shrug.

“What’s that mean?” she asked.

“We’re collections of souls, both male and female, so gender isn’t important, only status as alpha or beta is. Appearance is generally gender neutral until we become arrancar or vasto lorde. I mean, one gender may express itself as stronger in adjunca class, but not as much as when we evolve into vasto lorde. Humans and shinigami express a gender from the time they are born. We are a little less…defined. However, our expressed gender does show how we are built physically. So I have male features, while Harribel, Tres espada who is also an alpha, has female features. She, however, can still impregnate a beta if she were to choose to do so. She, however, has never chosen to interact with a beta in that fashion,” he said with a shrug. “She is bonded with her fraccion, but they have never had kits. My own Lord Barragan is a beta. He was so powerful though he never was able to find a mate while he was young enough to have kits. He destroyed or defeated all the alphas that came before him. Some he killed, others he subjugated, like me, and they became his fraccion instead. He had a desire to build an empire, so he did not kill all of those that could not defeat him or subjugate him to answer his heat. He became very bitter, however. Betas that never mate tend to do so, or they become insane.”

Soi Fong shook he head and stood and retrieved another cup of tea. “Fascinating. Now, will you tell me of the other espada?” she asked.

Ggio smiled and went into details that he knew about each and every espada and everything he knew about Las Noches and Aizen. Primera said to cooperate, and he intended to do so fully. It helped that he was intensely attracted to his jailer.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

A sudden intense burst of powerful reiatsu knocked the retrieval team all to the ground. Urahara stood slowly, dusting off his green kusodo and stared at the building in the distance.

“That was Ichigo’s reiatsu,” he said thoughtfully as the others came around him.

“There was another reiatsu signature at the same time,” Uryuu said, pushing his glasses up his nose thoughtfully.

“No, Nel!” came a yell and a child-like arrancar came running right into Urahara.

She gasped and looked up at him. “Oops, Nel ran into someone!”

Two more arrancar came forward, one with a huge mask and the other with a more slender mask, both were looking around at the shinigami who all but Urahara and Yoruichi had drawn their zanpakutou.

Urahara kneeled and smiled at her. “Your name is Nel?”

“Yes!” she said, grinning widely. “Nel was playing never-ending chase.”

“Why are you crying?” Urahara asked with a frown.

“Never-ending chase is best when Nel cries a little!” she answered.

Urahara smiled. “Nel, do you know what that was? That power a moment ago that we felt? We’re trying to find the person it came from.”

Nel’s eyes widened. “You’re looking for the beta that they brought back.”

Urahara nodded. “Yes, do you know him?”

She shook he head but her eyes were wide. “Nel just saw them. Nel hides from the big arrancar, they are mean to Nel. But the beta made Nel feel happy.”

Urahara smiled. “Why did the beta make you feel happy?”

The small girl smiled. “Nel is an alpha, silly. Nel would love to meet the beta, but Nel’s family won’t let her go to Las Noches.”

Urahara looked at the nervous looking arrancar and back to her. “Nel, would you like to go with us? We could use your help getting into Las Noches.”

Nel smiled. “Yes, Nel will go! Nel wants to meet the beta! Maybe Nel can make the beta her beta!”

Uryuu moved up and kneeled. “Nel, what was that release we felt? Do you know?”

She nodded. “Yes, yes, that was what happens with the beta when a powerful alpha claims the beta. The powers explode, boom, and then crash together and back into them, boom again!” she said proudly. “The beta is so powerful, though, Nel has never felt anything like it! This beta is special. He will have more than one claim him before he mates for good. That was the sexta, though. Grimmjow,” she said, growling. “Pretty kitty!” she said with a smile. “Before that, it was the primera, the puppy, woof, woof!”

Urahara kept his face neutral. “So there have been two of them so far?”

She nodded. “But I bet all the espada will have a chance, they’re all powerful.”

“Nel, how many espada are there?” Renji said, sheathing Zabimaru and kneeling beside her.

“Ten,” she said with a smile. “But there are the others that might try for power, too, the old espada, they might want his power for themselves. They have nothing to lose, though, they might break the rules.”

Renji looked at Urahara and Uryuu. “What are the rules, Nel?”

She scratched he head above the cracked ram’s head mask. “Betas are never, ever to be hurt. Alphas will defend a beta to the death. And an alpha cannot take what is not offered. But there are those that don’t listen to rules. Nel knows them.”

Renji looked at Urahara. “We have to get to him, soon,” he said softly. “Before Aizen takes him. If what that arrancar said was true…”

“Nel,” Urahara said thoughtfully. “The beta, he is my friend, and his name is Ichigo. We want to help him. How can we do that?”

Nel thought for a moment. “Nel likes that name. Nel will help Itsygo too. Nel will be strong alpha and protect the beta.”

“Aizen, the man at Las Noches, he wants to torture him and make him turn into a hollow so he can use his power,” Urahara continued. “Can you tell me what will happen if he does that?”

Nel looked shocked. “The beta will call, and call, and call. And all the alphas will try and help the beta because a beta in distress is something alphas can’t ignore.”

“Nel, this is important, what does the call sound like, and would we be able to hear it?” he asked.

Nel looked at them. “Are you shinigami?” she asked suddenly, eyes wide.

“We are, but we won’t hurt you if you want to help us. Primera sent someone to ask us to help,” he said gently.

Nel bit her lip and looked at her frozen “family” behind her. “You will hear it; everyone in Hueco Mundo will hear it. What it sounds like depends on the beta, but it will burn you here,” she said, pounding on her chest. “And it will make you ache and everything will turn black because it is so very sad and you have to help. Nel has heard it one time before. Nel does not want to hear it again. It is called the death knell because betas use it when they are in such pain they feel like they are going to die to try and get help.”

Urahara nodded and stood. “Nel, can you lead us into Las Noches?”

Nel grinned up happily. “Nel will do that, come on!” she said and started running toward the large building in the distance. The shinigami followed, hoping beyond hope that by the time they found their way in that they weren’t too late.


	5. Fifth Variable: Ulquiorra

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Edited and Re-uploaded 5-4-14

Ulquiorra was a passive arrancar. He was emotionless, or at least that’s what he thought of himself. Emotions were a hindrance and changed the way one thought. However, he was standing with his fist hovering over the door to Szayel’s lab and was…feeling. What he was feeling, he didn’t know for sure. He was…confused. He knew the source, though, it was the beta. He understood that. He’d never had these sensations until the beta was brought to Las Noches. He really wasn’t sure if he liked the sensation. He was determined to understand and examine it, however. This was…new. He knocked and waited. After a while the door opened and there was a sleepy looking Grimmjow. He rubbed his eyes.

“Goin’ ta bed, beta sleeping, let him sleep, he was exhausted…” he muttered and shuffled out of the room, scratching the back of his head. He stopped and turned back. “Szayel took more samples, but he’s off running tests on them at the moment.” With that, he left. Ulquiorra watched him go with a frown lining his brow.

Ulquiorra went into the room rather slowly, heading to the back where the smell hit him the moment the door opened to the room furthest back the beta was in. He blinked his green eyes and swallowed. He hadn’t expected that. He moved in and saw the Grimmjow had put him back on the table to keep him safe, he assumed. He smelled lightly the remaining pheromone release from the other two alphas, but for some reason it didn’t bother him. It was…arousing. Ulquiorra glanced downward and arched a brow at his own body. That had never happened before. The whole situation was fascinating on multiple levels for the stoic espada.

He approached the table and as he did the smells grew stronger. He’d felt the reiatsu release from both Starrk and Grimmjow, but that was hard to miss. He wondered if he claimed the beta, what would he feel? Would he feel? Or would he simply remain numb? His curiosity was growing stronger along with the tightness and heaviness in his stomach. Never had these sensations overwhelmed him to such a degree and he wasn’t sure what to make of them.

Ichigo had been exhausted and the sleep with Grimmjow near him had been what he needed. The sudden smell that came wafting over him was almost enough to make him moan in a dead sleep. He felt someone’s hands on his wrists and his ankles, he knew they were untying him, and he leaned into whoever it was. It didn’t even matter, his body was responding without a single rational thought. He honestly wasn’t sure that he had such a thing as rational thoughts remaining. He knew it was an espada. And he knew he had marked them. As his brain came out of the sleepy state he realized that meant it had to be Ulquiorra, the green eyed one. He came awake with a start and found himself sitting up on the table and being scrutinized by those green eyes. There was no expression on his face, he simply looked over him from head to toe and Ichigo realized that Grimmjow had replaced his hakama. However, the scrutiny sent a fiery blush to Ichigo’s face and he looked away from the fourth espada.

“You have turned red,” Ulquiorra commented, reaching up and putting a pale hand against his reddened cheek.

Ichigo turned to look at him, swallowing thickly, and breathed deeply the pheromone that the pale espada was emitting. It was heady and different than Starrk and Grimmjow. This was more musky than either of the other two. There was a tang to it, something sharp, almost like orange rind. It made Ichigo’s eyes water a bit at the strength of it. He let out a sound that began as a whine but ended in a low purring sound that reverberated through his chest. Ulquiorra tipped his head to the side.

“The sounds you make are interesting. They each have different meanings.” Ichigo knew he wasn’t expecting an answer. He was very clearly making out loud observations.

Ichigo wasn’t sure what to expect out of Ulquiorra, and his face was still expressionless. He couldn’t gage what he was going to do at all, and it was more than a little off-setting. He was still frightened of each of them. Starrk and Grimmjow had curbed their violence, he knew they had, but with Ulquiorra, he couldn’t read him at all. He’d stopped fighting whatever this was, however. There was no point in fighting it. It would happen, and he wanted it and didn’t want it at the same time, his mind fighting desperately with the instincts surging through his traitorous body. He wasn’t human, not anymore, he knew that beyond a doubt now. Whatever the hollow had done, there was no turning back. It wouldn’t matter if one of these alphas left him broken, he would allow it because he _couldn’t say no._ The thought was suddenly terrifying.

Throughout his life, he’d never thought much about sex. It was something adults did, and while more than once he’d found himself jerking off in the shower after something set his hormones on fire, he’d never really considered sex with another individual. Then, being drug into the shinigami world put a hold on any intention at sexual relations he might have had to begin with. Now here he was, no more than an animal to these alphas, with nothing to do to change it. He couldn’t deny them, and even at his most frightened, he couldn’t push them away. They could hurt him, torture him, and still the strange instincts would take hold and want them to take him. He would still want them to do this to him. For some reason, the thought that he no longer held the slightest bit of control over what was done to him made him almost ill.

Ulquiorra’s face never changed as he suddenly dropped both hands and lifted Ichigo up by his hips and dropped him onto his feet in front of him. Ichigo wobbled a bit and looked down at the shorter arrancar. It was a bit odd, he was the only one Ichigo was actually taller than. Of course, he should have realized that instinctually, Ulquiorra would have to correct the positions. The easiest way to assert dominance over the beta was to force Ichigo onto the floor under him.

It was swift and Ichigo honestly didn’t have much time to react because Ulquiorra was perhaps one of the fastest among the espada. Before he knew it he was flat on his stomach on the floor with Ulquiorra kneeling over his back. Ichigo could feel the heat radiating off his body as he pressed close to his bare back with his own arousal and Ichigo began to panic. Was he going to be rough with him? Was he going on instinct alone or had he done this before like Grimmjow and Starrk? As his panic rose, the fear pheromones began to flood outward from him. Ichigo had buried his head in the crook of his arm, trying to control his breathing. He had no idea where this irrational fear came from every time he even thought of being hurt by one of them. It wasn’t like him.

“You are afraid.” Ichigo wanted to snap at him something sarcastic but his words simply wouldn’t come. “This is unacceptable. You must not be afraid.”

All that Ichigo could respond with was a whimper as he tried to contain another sound he didn’t want to release. He wasn’t going to let the irrational fear get the best of him. He felt himself being flipped around onto his back and he was looking up at Ulquiorra’s striking eyes as he stared with a look of confusion.

“You fear me?” Ulquiorra asked, as though realizing what the reason for the fear was.

Ichigo swallowed hard and tried to say something but there was such a strong release of pheromones from Ulquiorra he couldn’t say anything. The strength of Ulquiorra’s pheromones were what was causing the reaction more than anything. The stronger an alpha’s pheromone release, the stronger they were physically and the more likely they were to harm a beta that was not powerful enough for them. This wasn’t the case with Ichigo, but Ichigo was unaware that Ulquiorra, unlike the other arrancar, had a segunda etapa, which escalated his abilities higher than that of even the Primera. Even with that strength, though, Ichigo was stronger than he was even in that form should they ever actually fight each other.

Ulquiorra moved backward and with surprising strength lifted Ichigo up and onto the table. He stared at him for another long moment.

“I do not intend to harm you. I am unused to these sensations. I am unused to dealing with the emotional release associated with this physical sensation,” Ulquiorra said taking Ichigo’s hand and pressing it against the tautness in his hakama.

Despite the fear, Ichigo’s fingers flexed against him and he felt his own arousal rise at it. He whimpered again, his own need beginning to edge away the fear. Ulquiorra’s words helped as well. He felt like such a whiny chick sometimes, he thought to himself. He was being ridiculous, because hurting him wouldn’t get the alpha what they wanted, which was to be his mate. He didn’t understand yet that the release of the fear smell was to simply ensure the beta’s safety and keep the alphas from answering their basest instincts without thought. It was a built in safety mechanism to a species that was normally violent and harsh.

“I wish to explore this sensation,” Ulquiorra said stoically and began to untie the obi at Ichigo’s waist. Ichigo watched and lifted himself up when Ulquiorra reached for the waist of the hakama and pulled them away, dropping them at the floor under the table. He then turned his head to the side and stared at him for another long moment as Ichigo tried to shift his hands over himself.

Ulquiorra reached out and pushed Ichigo’s hands away and began to stroke Ichigo’s leaking member, causing him to moan loudly and drop his head back. Ulquiorra looked up at him, and began to run his fingers down around the base, then touching the clear liquid from the tip. He leaned forward and licked at the tip experimentally, causing Ichigo’s eyes to widen and a barely restrained moan to come from his mouth.

“I enjoy these sounds,” Ulquiorra said, gently pushing Ichigo’s shoulders back to lay him flat on the table and going back to experimenting with his tongue.

Unlike the others, he didn’t seem to be in any hurry to satisfy his own need. Ichigo whimpered as he trailed his tongue down around the sack and to the perineum. Ulquiorra pushed the beta’s legs upward and used his hands to lift his hips upward off the table. His eyes trailed over his body, the taut muscles of his abdominals, down to the v shape of the line of his hips and pelvis, into the orange nest of hair at the end of a soft trail that started at his navel. He followed up the line of his straight, veined member, the tip reddened deeply to nearly purple and leaking copious amounts of the salty fluid. Ulquiorra noted his own arousal was also leaking the substance. Fascinating, he thought as his eyes continued down over the softness of the globes of flesh under the orange nest of hair and the soft opening to his body. His tongue then followed the trail of his eyes, and soon he was having trouble keeping the beta still.

Ichigo almost came as Ulquiorra’s tongue slipped inside him. He nearly sat up despite Ulquiorra having his hips tilted upward. He knew he probably sounded pitiful; the need from his own body along with the steady amount of pheromones that Ulquiorra was releasing was causing him to suffer exquisitely. It was torture, but the fear had dissipated, and he didn’t care, he just wanted Ulquiorra to take him and end the pain he was enduring. Ulquiorra, though, seemed to be intent on torturing him with his wicked tongue.

For his part, Ulquiorra was suffering with the same pain as Ichigo was, but he was fascinated by the things that happened when he did different things to the beta. The responses were interesting. He shifted and put one hand under him on the small of his back to hold him up and rested Ichigo’s legs on his shoulders as he used one of his fingers to explore inside him a bit. Ichigo twitched, and his hands clawed at the metal when he brushed something. Ulquiorra thought it felt fascinating, smooth and warm, hot almost, with the slightest amount of slickness. He wondered how much was from the beta and how much he had added as he twisted his fingers and found the spot again and brought a long drawn out moan from him.

“P-please, Ulqie…you’re gonna make…me come…” Ichigo moaned, writing, nails scratching into the metal.

“Is that unpleasant?” Ulquiorra asked, and slid a second finger inside and explored until he pressed the same spot again. Ichigo was obviously enjoying it by the incredibly aroused release of pheromones. He wondered what would happen if he combined the work of his fingers with that of his mouth. The beta seemed to enjoy both separately.

The moment the quarta put him into his mouth again, Ichigo reached up and twisted both hands into his black hair and moaned again, legs tightening around his neck intensely and pulling him further into him. Ulquiorra went with it and continued to take him down until he had taken him into his mouth and throat entirely. It wasn’t entirely unpleasant, and then he began working a third finger into him and twirling his fingers around, stroking that spot until Ichigo’s body arched harshly and his head fell back into the table with a clang. In his thrashing, he knocked something off the table above his head that exploded on the ground. Ulquiorra felt a pulsing sensation, and the beta’s body clamped down on his fingers tightly as he shot spurts of warm liquid into his mouth. Ulquiorra waited until it stopped and then put him down on the table and looked over at him, and saw he was panting and flushed bright red.

“Interesting,” Ulquiorra commented and then reached down and untied his own obi, letting his hakama slide off his slender legs.

Ichigo wasn’t sure what to do, his head was dull at the moment, but the sudden influx of new pheromones set his instincts on fire. The alpha wasn’t sated, and he hadn’t been claimed despite his own release. He groaned to realize that he was already hardening again as he felt his body slide down the table until Ulquiorra pulled him to a sitting position. Ichigo reached out and wrapped his arms around his neck and buried his head in the crook of his neck, breathing deeply the smell. With his usual quickness, Ulquiorra lifted him just slightly, shifting him forward a bit, and slid into the beta with a groan of his own.

Ichigo tightened his legs around Ulquiorra’s waist, locking his ankles around each other and holding onto him as Ulquiorra began a relentless rhythm against him. Ichigo was certain the stoic bastard was angling directly for his prostate because he was on the verge of coming within moments. Ulquiorra felt him tightening and a moment later, he went over the edge, coming onto their bellies between them and sending Ulquiorra over immediately. The release of reiatsu was greater than Grimmjow’s had been, and almost more than Primera’s. Ichigo panted harshly against him and whimpered as he moved and pulled from him. Ichigo felt his eyes slipping closed already.

Ulquiorra slid into his own hakama and replaced the beta’s, but found Ichigo was still clinging to him. He felt that he should hold him, keeping him close, protecting him during the rest period. It was that moment as he sat down, pulling the beta against him in the chair that he realized something.

 _He felt._ For the first time in his memory, he, the espada of emptiness, had _felt._

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

                “Well, what are you doing here?” came a familiar voice. Jushiro Ukitake looked up to see the floral pink apparel that belonged to only one person. He was sitting watching the carp in the pond on his estate recuperating from another bout of his sickness. The strain at the hill had put him in a state that required much rest. He hadn’t been well when he’d gone out to destroy the sokoyuku.

                “Thinking about the boy,” Ukitake said with a soft smile, not looking back as he felt the other man settle behind him, placing one hand on his hip as he did so.

                “Ah, Kurosaki. The one that looks like Kaien,” the other said, placing his straw hat on the ground beside him. “I understand that he is actually one of the Shiba.”

                “Of course he is, there is no mistaking the family resemblance,” Ukitake said, leaning back into the strong chest of his longtime friend and lover.

After hundreds of years, such things as simple relationships didn’t exist for them. Time had bonded them in ways that others could never understand. Shinigami weren’t like humans. They had little regard for the conventions of sexuality and what constituted a proper relationship. No, relationships when lives lasted for millennia were far different from their short lived human counterparts. Love and sex were nice, but companionship and a connection that breeched the boards of the soul was so much more important.

                Shunsui Kyōraku worried a great deal about his dear Jushiro. He always did, and that would never change, he knew that. He wrapped both his arms now around the thinner man’s waist and settled his chin on his shoulder and stared out over the pond as well.

                “They are playful today,” he commented, hands flexing against Ukitake’s stomach.

                “They are. You appear to be playful as well, Shunsui,” he commented, moving to pat Shunsui’s hands thoughtfully as he leaned his weight on the stronger man. “Where is your Nanao?”

                “Ah, she is busy. I left her with the paperwork. I needed to see if you were well again, you overtaxed yourself greatly,” Kyōraku said with a soft smile.

                They sat there for a long moment, quiet and watching the pond. There was no hurry between them, of course. Kyōraku was used to Ukitake’s illness, and was very patient with the frail man. He felt him give all his weight to him and he accepted it because that was what he always did. The silence was broken as a sudden wave of unease swept through them, and everyone else that could sense reiatsu. Ukitake and Kyōraku stood immediately and glanced at each other, immediately flashing toward the first to find out what was happening.

                They arrived to find people running everywhere, yelling. Ukitake grabbed a member of the twelfth that was running past. “What’s happening?”

                “The restrictive current’s all messed up! The dangai’s disrupted, and we don’t know why! Some influx of reiatsu that has completely broken through the barriers between the three worlds. We’re not sure what’s happening. The only ones who aren’t affected are those with no power at all!” He then took off at a run.

Moments later there was another commotion near the main senkaimon and both captains were shocked to see eight people they didn’t expect to come through anytime soon. Ukitake and Kyōraku went running to meet them.

“Shinji, what are you doing back here? Urahara told us what happened, but…” Ukitake said and glanced among the eight.

Another wave of unease flowed outward from somewhere and all eight of the Visored blinked and their masks manifested. Shinji reached up and dismissed his with annoyance. The rest of the Visored didn’t bother dismissing their masks and just stood quietly behind their default leader.

“Kyōraku-taichou, Ukitake-taichou, it would seem something is amiss…”

There was another burst of activity and the captains looked up to see Rukia running toward them. “Ukitake-taichou! The sou-taichou needs you; they’ve matched the reiatsu disruption to Ichigo. Something…something is very wrong!” she said, violet eyes wide and obviously frantic.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-ooooo-

Ichigo was startled out of sleep by someone shaking his shoulder. He blinked to see Szayel leaning over him. At some point, he’d been moved back onto the blasted table, it seemed. He was beginning to hate the table. It was hard, cold, and complete with wrist and ankle restraints that sealed his reiatsu so he couldn’t break them. It was frustrating, and he only really rested when he slept with one of the alphas. He winced at the thought. Here he was, big strong Ichigo Kurosaki, wishing for a big strong man to hold _him_ tight. This was messed up on so many levels…

“Please, wake up, quickly,” Szayel said. There was a tone to his voice that Ichigo wasn’t sure he liked. He knew that Szayel was technically insane, but he’d been nice to him so far.

“Szayel?” he muttered, frowning at the worried face the pink haired scientist was wearing.

“I finished my tests, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, I couldn’t put him off any longer, I tried, I tried, I promise, Ichigo, I really did,” he said franticly, unclasping his wrists and ankles and pulling him to a sitting position. Ulquiorra stood to the side looking confused still. He then clamped a pair of metal cuffs onto his wrists and ankles, and Ichigo could tell they limited his access to the power inside him like the ones that he had when he was laid on the table.

“What…what’s happening?” Ichigo asked, and looked to see Aizen standing in the doorway. He had a look of smug indifference on his face.

“He’s ready, Aizen-sama,” Szayel said, bowing slightly and leaving the room.

“Ichigo,” Aizen said, looking him over.

Ichigo’s eyes were wide and the release of the fear pheromones began, sending Ulquiorra to blink rapidly as his pulse rose with the instinct to stop the fear of the beta he’d claimed.

“I want you to cooperate with me, and you won’t be hurt,” Aizen said staring at him. “Szayel has run all sorts of tests on you, and still I do not know what it is I need to know. I believe to find out what I need to know, you must fully release the hollow. I need to see it and examine what power it holds first hand. These tests do not completely tell me what I want to know, and Szayel is reluctant to dissect you while you are alive. So if you would do that for me, I would be grateful.”

Ichigo shook his head. “But…I don’t know how to, even if I can do that, I don’t know why you’d want him…”

“As I thought, you are both ignorant and stupid. If you will not willingly bring him out, I will draw him out myself. Cuarta, bring him,” Aizen said.

Ulquiorra moved over to him quickly and helped Ichigo down. Ichigo noted that he held his arm loosely as they followed Aizen down corridors of same whiteness. They saw several other arrancar along the way. Each time they passed one, a low rumble would issue from Ichigo’s chest, something different from anything else he’d ever made before. He suddenly realizing he was warning them to stay back away from him because they were far less powerful than he was. Then they entered a large room and Aizen gestured to a wall where another figure was shackled. Ichigo frowned and realized that it was Hitsugaya… Why was he here? How was he here?

Toshiro lifted his head and stared at Ichigo as he was shackled to the wall a few feet from the slight captain. Ichigo looked around the room thoughtfully. It was a large room, perhaps twenty feet by twenty feet, with a high ceiling that was maybe fifteen feet above them. There was a skylight dome in the center that they could see the fake sky of Las Noches through. It was currently night, it seemed. There were several sets of shackles along the wall, and beside each was a metal cart with a cloth over it. Ichigo was relatively sure he knew what was under those covers. Ichigo was in the slot directly beside Toshiro, only about three feet separating them. Ichigo looked back to Aizen as he clamped the iron chains onto the wrist cuffs.

“P-please, I don’t…I can’t make it happen, please…” Ichigo stammered, pulling on the shackles above his head. His hands were at rest right above his head and he had a couple inches of play in the chain.

Aizen came over and there was a click as a metal collar was locked onto his neck and his ankles were shackled together and then to the wall. The collar was also shackled to the wall behind him.

“Considering that my espada believe you to be harboring a vasto lorde classed hollow, we can’t be too careful and let him run rampant once I get him to come out…” Aizen said.

Ulquiorra stood at the doorway still. Aizen turned and frowned at him. “Leave, you are not needed any further.” Ulquiorra nodded and left. Ichigo looked at him with wide eyes and saw the hesitation as he left. He wondered what he would do.

Ichigo released a strange sound that was a mix between a high pitched whine and a growl as soon as the door shut behind the alpha. His heart rate skyrocketed because he didn’t feel the comforting presence of the alpha any longer. A beta alone in heat was in danger. Toshiro glanced over with a cocked eyebrow, unsure he’d heard the noise correctly.

“Oh, did the beta’s alphas all leave him alone?” Aizen asked mockingly. “Everyone felt the release of reiatsu, aren’t you a little whore already? Less than three days and already had three of my espada fuck you?” Aizen asked, pushing his chin upward sharply.

“Not my fault,” he said, panting as the panic threatened to eclipse his senses. “I can’t help what I am…” he muttered.

“Because you aren’t human?” Aizen asked. “What are you then? You look more hollow than anything with that black mark here,” he said poking the black circle in his chest. “And this pallid skin tone you’re sporting. So just let him come out and let me examine him at full power.”

Ichigo shook his head. “No, no, you don’t want that, he’s crazy, he’s insane, he’s…he did this to me because…because…I don’t even know why he did this to me!”

Aizen’s hand was out and back beside him before Ichigo noticed, leaving his head ringing from the motion and his face stinging sharply. “Shall I tell the dear captain over here all about what you really are? He’s going to see, because you are going to let the hollow out so I can learn how you came to be. I will make more like you using the hogyuku. And they will be more powerful than any of my espada.”

Ichigo swallowed hard. “I don’t make him do anything, he does what he wants!”

_I definitely don’t want to come out for that bastard. Fuck him._

“He says he won’t come out,” Ichigo said, nearly sobbing with relief. He was scared he would take the chance.

“Then I’ll just have to do what I did before. Bring you to the brink of death, and he’ll come out to save his own life,” Aizen said, turning behind him to pick up a short, sharp looking knife. He pulled on the chain beside Ichigo’s head and all the slack in his chains was gone and he was flat against the wall.

“Please, don’t,” Ichigo said as Aizen put the knife at his collarbone and began to slice against the skin. Ichigo didn’t want to look at the tray because knives were the least of the implements present on that tray. He knew several of them, and they all meant a great deal of pain.

Ichigo wasn’t going to do what he wanted. He swore he wasn’t. But Aizen was persistent, and he was good at torture. Toshiro looked paler than normal and tried to look away, but Ichigo saw that his face kept turning to him. Several times he yelled at Aizen to stop. Aizen did not listen. There was quite a puddle of blood at Ichigo’s feet when he began to call for help. It wasn’t a normal call, because Aizen was immune to the sound thanks to the hogyuku. It was a piercing sound that passed through event he thickest walls. It was filled with reiatsu and it was someone that only a few of the arrancar had ever heard. As it progressed, it got stronger, and stronger, and began to pass through the barriers between worlds. The shinigami sensed unease, but only the most powerful among them. The Visored felt a need to help whatever it was calling to them. Humans may have noticed, but most called it a goose walking over their grave. The arrancar, though, were in pain. The lower level alphas and betas had escaped to the sands, hoping that distance would help. To ignore the call of a beta in need was simply not done. To ignore _the_ beta was something that none of them would do. Far away from Las Noches, hollows were beginning to gather together, fear and unease stroking at the animal within each of them.

Some of the higher level arrancar began to gather together. Something had to be done. One did not ignore the Death Knell of a beta, not one of such power that he would alone be able to rule all of Hueco Mundo…


	6. Sixth Variable: Soi Fon

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Edited and Re-uploaded 5-30-14

Ichigo’s eyes were glued shut, he swore it. He wasn’t sure what the hell ran him over, but he hurt like a mother fucker. There was a deep burning in his stomach, and there was an intense pain in his eye. His head was throbbing madly, and his arms were stinging. A deep ache throbbed in his hands and feet. He groaned and heard a voice, faintly, near him. A rumble from his own chest made him start and he remembered. Nothing ran him over. Aizen had been torturing him. His head was pounding behind his eyes so bad he couldn’t seem to muster the strength to open his eyes. After a while, he opened them to realize that things looked very strange. Oh, wait, he couldn’t see out of one eye because Aizen had put it out, and the other was hazy with blood. He winced. Hot metal and an eye socket didn’t mix too well.

“Ichigo!” he heard the voice again.

“Goway,” he muttered. “Tired.”

“Ichigo, good you aren’t dead…” the voice resumed with a deep sigh. Who was that? Oh, yeah, Toshiro. He remembered hearing Toshiro screaming when Aizen took his eye. He thought he’d screamed then, he wasn’t sure. It was all a bit blurry, to be honest.

“Wish I was,” he said, and he realized his words were terribly garbled. He winced. Damn, Aizen was a bastard. He was missing half his teeth.

“What is he trying to do?” Toshiro whispered harshly. “I…Kami, Ichigo, I’ve never seen someone do what he did to you. And that noise you made…it _hurt_. At least it hurt me, I don’t think Aizen noticed it at all, it was like he couldn’t hear it…”

Ichigo snorted, and coughed, blood running down his chin from something internally damaged. “Bastard can’t hear it. Only hollows. Wait…” Ichigo craned his head and saw Toshiro was to his right; luckily it was his left eye he’d lost. “How could you hear that?”

Toshiro looked intact and very confused at that statement. “I don’t know. I just did.”

“What…they…” Ichigo paused, once more blackish blood spraying from his mouth. “Ugh, that’s gross, what do…they want…you for?”

Toshiro sighed. “Something about using Hyorinmaru. I don’t know what he has planned…the female espada and her people came to Soul Society. I don’t know what kind of items that scientist of theirs makes, but they are very effective.”

Ichigo looked up to see the door open and saw it was Grimmjow, the blue hair unmistakable even through the red haze that tainted his blurry vision. The Sexta espada wasn’t steady on his feet though, and he appeared to be trying to head directly for Toshiro but he growled and ran to Ichigo when he was halfway there. Grimmjow’s instinct was flaring dangerously, but if he did something now, things would go bad for everyone. He couldn’t just do as Aizen had instructed and take the ice dragon to the lab. Ichigo was everything at the moment and the only thought in his mind.

“Fucking goddamned bastard,” he growled, placing both hands on Ichigo’s face and lifting it up. “What the fuck did he do?”

Ichigo shook his head weakly. “Everything…” he muttered, descending into a coughing fit again. “He left…after I…passed out…guess I’m not fun when I’m not…screaming for him,” Ichigo said slowly, trying to smile.

Grimmjow’s jaw was tight as he took his thumbs and rubbed the blood from Ichigo’s cheeks. “It’s killing us, what he’s doing, you know that, right?”

Ichigo sighed, unable to muster a response. What kind of response was there to give to such a statement? Ichigo could think of none. He didn’t know enough about these alpha and beta dynamics to truly understand why the sound he released despite all his attempts to suppress it should bother the alphas to such a degree. But he felt so much better at that moment with Grimmjow’s presence near him. He sighed deeply and let the smell of him roll over him. He wanted to be held in his arms not chained to a wall.

“If he keeps it up, we can’t hold back, this…it will be too much. We’ll kill him,” Grimmjow said, running a surprisingly gentle hand over the swollen unseeing eye on Ichigo’s left side.

“But…he’ll kill you…don’t…please. I’m trying…not to call, but it happens…I can’t stop it…” Ichigo said, hands shaking above his head. Grimmjow reached up and ran fingers over the broken bones and down his bloodied arms to the bruising and wounds on his torso. Ichigo winced as he traced bulging portions of ribs and swollen knife and burn marks. “Won’t give him the hollow…” Ichigo said slowly.

Grimmjow sighed. “I…I’ve got to take the ice dragon to the lab. I…we’ve got to do something. We can’t lose you. I won’t. Rest while he does whatever he’s planning for the ice dragon here.”

Grimmjow turned and unhooked the chains from the wall holding Toshiro. Ichigo saw the flash and realized they were reiatsu sealing chains like his own. That explained why Toshiro had been held so easily. He groaned and wished that he could rest but the intensity of the pain was not letting him. He felt the pull to his inner world though and stood facing the hollow side of himself.

“What do you want?” he muttered, lying on the side of the building.

“You got backbone, ya know?” the white version of himself said with a smile. It was almost a kind smile.

“I wouldn’t be in this position if you hadn’t done…whatever you did,” Ichigo said, doing his best to ignore a sudden stabbing pain in his shoulders. He was sure one of them was out of socket. Maybe both. Considering the pain was transferring into his inner world it was severe no doubt it was severe.

“Nah, you think I did this to make you suffer?” he said, grinning as he sat beside him. He still looked crazy even casual like this.

“Why else, you crazy bastard?” he asked, sighing as a shooting pain shot through his temple.

“Because you’re gonna rule them all, my King, you will be their ruler, and they’ll fall at your feet,” he said. “No one will stop us. Just wait and see. When the time’s right, it will happen as it should.”

Ichigo’s energy ran out then and he slipped into the darkness.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

                It was inevitable that a second team would go to Hueco Mundo after the disturbances in the restrictive current. Soi Fon would lead the second incursion team with the eight Visored and a few others. Whatever was going on was causing the Visored some serious issues, and they’d stopped dismissing their hollow masks. It simply would come back when the next wave of reiatsu rushed over them. After the reiatsu stopped finally, they dismissed the masks. The problem was, once the reiatsu bursts stopped, they worried over what had caused it to stop suddenly. The obvious answer was that whatever was causing them was dead. They hoped that wasn’t true since the pattern vaguely matched Ichigo’s, but they couldn’t be sure.

                Soi Fon and the group would leave at dawn, so she went to find the arrancar and tell him the plan. Ggio sat quietly, staring through the bars outside as Soi Fon entered the cell.

                “We leave come morning for Hueco Mundo,” she said with a nod at him.

                Ggio didn’t turn, merely nodded. “It stopped.”

                “What did?” Soi Fon asked, sitting in the seat outside the cell.

                “His Death Knell. That keening sound that you felt, it was the beta in extreme pain, enough to feel as though he was dying. Primera said Aizen’d torture him. Seems he was right,” Ggio said sighing deeply and turning to face Soi Fon.

She was looking at him curiously and the arrancar, who by all rights should have no heart to speak of, felt something that he hadn’t felt since the collective souls that made him up were mortal. Was this the effect of a beta? Not just a beta, but _the_ beta? No, it couldn’t mean…could it?

“There’s this story,” Ggio began. Soi Fon tipped her head to the side. “I don’t know where it started, who told it first, you know, but the Vasto Lorde knew it before they became arrancar. It might be one of those things that you learn when you attain a higher level of power. Anyway, those of us that were adjunca class when we became arrancar heard it from the ones that had been vasto lorde class before they became arrancar, and so on.” Ggio paused and looked up at the moon framed in the window. “Maybe Primera suspected it, that’s why he sent me for help. It is really the only answer.”

“Suspected what?” Soi Fon asked, leaning forward, and watching the arrancar intently.

“This story, legend, prophecy even, it said that there would come a day when a force would come to Hueco Mundo that would seal the hollow within those that bridge the worlds. Cryptic, I know. There are tons of theories. The most popular is that the arrancar bridge the worlds, because we aren’t hollow anymore completely. But the force that could do that… There was a theory that a beta would rise to unite Hueco Mundo finally. Only a beta of immense power, that all hollows would be drawn to protect could do that. So that’s the theory. Maybe Primera thinks your orange headed shinigami might be that force,” Ggio said with a soft smile at him. “I can’t say I’d mind filling the hollowness within me.”

Soi Fon sat for a long moment and then stood and unlocked the cell. “Come, you can wash and sleep in a real bed for tonight before we leave tomorrow,” she said, and walked away. She paused and looked back. “Assuming of course, you won’t kill me and escape,” she said with a half grin.

Ggio followed her to a bath house. It was late, the moon high and no one was around. Ggio turned to her and smiled.               

“Cliché, I know, but we may not live past tomorrow, want to join me?” he said. He was never one for subtlety. “If not, I mean, it isn’t…”

Soi Fon was, of course, one for subtlety, and throughout the whole encounter with the arrancar and with the strange reiatsu that only captain levels seemed to feel, she’d felt a heat building inside her that she’d never felt before. Perhaps, like Ggio had described, she felt hollow, incomplete. But the reiatsu affected her, like it did all those that could sense it, and she felt drawn to this…tiger. She had hidden it effectively, of course. She did not answer to those base instincts in herself. But now, she found herself leaning forward and grabbing the arrancar by the face and matching frantic lips with his. There was a sudden flare of reiatsu between them, rising and both were stumbling backward into the bathhouse.

Neither one was really aware how it happened, or even when, but the water was warm, and there was nothing between them anymore. It was animal, and primal, and beautiful as the moonlight shown down on them, bodies entwined in the water, each meeting the other with equal fervor. Soi Fon’s tightly controlled hold on herself released and she allowed herself the things she had previously denied, and Ggio’s non-existent heart rose to his throat and he found himself lost in the stars around him. The water caressed them beside hands that could not touch enough flesh, and the light lit them with halos of white. Riding the cresting pleasures, they fell downward, spiraling into sweet oblivion in each other’s arms.

Not far away, another pair watched. Jushiro shivered as Shunsui placed a gentle kiss on his neck. They had felt the reiatsu and went to ensure that Soi Fon was not in danger. She certainly wasn’t, from what they could see in their vantage point above the bathhouse. Shusui’s arms wrapped around his thinner lover’s waist and he murmured in his ear.

“I think they have the right idea.”

Jushiro smiled and turned to kiss the stubble roughened cheek beside his face. “You are insatiable.”

“I must take what opportunities I can, you are too sick too often,” Shunsui said, spinning Jushiro around to face him and planting soft kisses along his pale throat. “And you felt the influence from our dear Ichigo, I know you did. Even before he left, the feelings he incited among us…draws us together even more.”

“Hmm, yes, this is true…” Jushiro said as Shunsui’s hands traced random patterns on his back as Jushiro’s head fell back and his eyes locked on the moon above. Below, they heard Soi Fon’s cries of exquisite tortured pleasure and Jushiro was set upon by Shunsui, blinking lazily at Jushiro as the pink kimono flapped around them both and Shunsui pinned him to the rooftop with kisses and small caresses.

“Shun, here?” Jushiro said, a blush coloring his pale face as he glanced about the darkened rooftop.

“Why not? No one is here, and the moon is lovely, and our dear second captain has set the mood for us…” Shunsui said, pulling open Jushiro’s kusodo and laying kisses down the frail torso until he reached the man’s obi. He grinned and pulled the tie open with his teeth and let his hands follow down the thinner man’s hips.

Jushiro gasped as he watched Shunsui pull away the black fabric and peel down the front of his hakama teasingly just above his black curls below. The larger man grinned at his frail lover and began to lick and kiss the thin bones of his hips, leaving the man shivering under him. He smiled again because when he glanced up, Jushiro was trying his very best not to watch him. Shunsui was sneaky though, and while his love had been distracted, he’d snaked a hand around his own waist and released the obi. He lifted Jushiro’s hips, sliding his hakama down as he went, and slid down his body getting the usual gasp as his tongue trailed down the crease of his thigh underneath him. He grinned as he slid his tongue across his perineum and down into his entrance getting the surprised squeak that usually followed the action. It never mattered how many times he did this, Jushiro always acted surprised at the action, later commenting how he didn’t understand how he could enjoy something so dirty. Shunsui would just smile and shake his head. He knew what his Jushiro liked, even if Jushiro was far too bashful to admit it.

Once he was pleased that he’d worked his opening sufficiently, he slid upward and buried his finger inside him, smiling softly as the frail man arched under his touch. After a few moments, he’d finished his preparations and then set to ravaging his mouth and neck as pressed into his lover softly, slowly, and teasingly.

“Oh, my Jushiro, you are my only love, my exhibitionist, being fucked hard on top of the buildings where anyone could find us…could see me sliding into you, over and over, making you writhe and moan like a kagema in a teahouse…” he whispered into his ear. A deep blush stained the paler man’s face and then Shunsui thrust hard and deep into him and grinned. Jushiro was also a sucker for dirty talk, even if the white haired man would never admit it out loud. The hardness under his hands and the leaking arousal was the only surety that Shunsui needed. “It helps that you are my lovely cockslut, my kagema whore.”

“Shunsui!” Jushiro gasped and there was a peal of laughter from Shunsui followed by utter silence broken only by panting breaths and quiet gasping moans.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Szayel was sick, literally sick, by the time Aizen appeared and told him that they were going to begin the bonding between Harribel and the Ice Dragon. He was a powerful beta, one that had his own instincts forcibly suppressed by Aizen. Ichigo was quickly awakening them. And when Aizen walked in, he could smell Ichigo’s blood on him and the madness flared dangerously. It took a bit to suppress the urge to rip out the man’s throat. Grimmjow brought the short captain into the lab and secured him to the table with the suppression chains. Szayel’s hands were shaking as he locked them. He looked up to see Grimmjow wasn’t faring much better. His jaw was clenched and his lip was raw where he’d worried it extensively with his teeth.

“Wh-what’s he done?” Szayel gasped finally, unable to stop it, as he glanced to see Aizen was far enough away not to hear him. “What’s he done to him? You have to tell me. I heard him and I couldn’t stand it for much longer when it stopped. Please…tell me he’s not dead.”

Grimmjow growled and frowned. “I can’t…I can’t…” he said and turned and left.

Toshiro looked up confused. “What’s happening with you Espada? Don’t you answer to Aizen?”

“Aizen has power, we’re…drawn to power. The beta has more power than Aizen understands…and we need to stop what he’s doing…he’s possibly the answer…” Szayel said slowly, stopping and gripping his hands together in an attempt to stop the shaking. “Among us…it is taboo to harm a beta, they are rare and precious, and even other betas that are less powerful like me will rise to defend a powerful one.”

Toshiro stared up at the pink haired scientist. “You’re a beta?”

Szayel nodded. “But…what Aizen did…it suppressed the instincts. But they’re returning and I am finding it difficult not to attack him. But I can’t without forfeiting my life. I doubt even Primera could take Aizen’s life alone.”

“What is he doing by torturing him?” Toshiro asked.

“Drawing the hollow out. He wants to have the hollow inside Ichigo, he’s deluded into thinking he can control it like he controls us. He is mistaken…and if he doesn’t stop, and draws that hollow out entirely, he may find out. He believes that if he hurts Ichigo’s body enough, the hollow will surface to save his life. He doesn’t want to chance accidently killing him, so he is slowly escalating the damage to his body in the hopes that the hollow will surface before he’s in mortal danger. But eventually he’ll stop torture and deal a killing blow to him to bring it out. He thinks if he has access to the hollow’s power he can imitate it in new arrancar by using the hogyuku when it fully awakens…” Szayel stopped and stepped back as Aizen entered.

“Aizen,” Toshiro snarled up at him.

“How fares dear Momo?” he asked, a sarcastic smile on his lips.

Toshiro railed against the bindings, wanting nothing more than to get his hands around the captain’s neck. “You bastard.”

“Szayel, I sense my main project has awakened again. I want you to begin the experiment. I’ll return once he passes out again or the hollow surfaces finally,” Aizen said and turned and left.

Aizen navigated the corridors back to where the shinigami, hollow, whatever he was, was waiting him. He didn’t notice the glares and looks he got from those he passed. In fact, it seemed the only ones that were unaffected by Ichigo’s distress had been Barragan and Zommari. They were excited by the prospect of what power he could bring.

Aizen opened the door and entered the room to see him staring at him from his one remaining eye. The other was mangled and blackened. Aizen smiled to sense that his life force, though weaker, was still strong. Even with as much pain as he had put him through already, he hadn’t diminished him. The power it took to maintain consciousness as long as he had been immense.

“My, you look a fright,” Aizen said, standing at the edge of the darkening blood pool on the ground. “Are you certain that hollow won’t come out to play? I really was hoping to not have to bring you completely to the brink of death. However, you appear to have a resistance to dying.”

Ichigo shook his head, the chains rattling. “Fuck you, Aizen,” he muttered and spat blood at him.

Aizen smiled, wiping the blood off his jacket. “I thought it would be this way. He will emerge. One way or another, to heal this dying corpse, he will emerge. He is a hollow and he will save himself from dying, whoever he is,” Aizen said, picking up a blunt tool from the tray of implements, most of which were covered in drying blood. “Shall we take the other eye and see how well things go?”

Ichigo gulped, and tried to pull his face away as Aizen came at him with the metal rod, the tip beginning to glow hot as it neared his remaining eye. He tried not to scream. He tried not to call. He failed on both accounts.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

It was Nel that screamed first, followed by the other two arrancar. Uryuu and Nemu were sitting near a fire they’d built to ward off the chill, and the child arrancar was sitting across from them. Yoruichi and Urahara had taken off together, and based on the reiatsu, the others were pretty certain of what they had found to occupy and comfort themselves with. It was true, though; they all desperately needed comforting after the reiatsu stopped washing over them. Uryuu had found himself allowing Nemu’s arm around him as he shook in desperation. Renji woke from a fitful sleep where he was lying beside the pair.

To Uryuu’s surprise, Nel’s scream was followed by a flash of light that left a woman standing where the child had been. The other two arrancar were holding each other and staring at her. She turned her back on Nemu and Uryuu and faced Las Noches, and when she did, Uryuu saw the number three boldly marked on her back. His eyes widened. Not only was she an Arrancar, she was an Espada…or at least, she had been.

She uttered a shrieking sound that reverberated through everyone’s ears and then they were surrounded by adjunca classed hollows. Uryuu gripped Nemu again. He really didn’t notice that he was clinging to the woman…doll…body…whatever she was. At that moment, Urahara and Yoruichi came flashing into the group and stared at Nel as she turned around. Urahara’s hat was in his hand, and Yoruichi seemed to have forgotten to put on her pants…again.

“What?” Urahara asked, staring at her. He recognized the child that had been there in the woman before him.

“I’ve regained my memory,” she said without turning around. “And with it my power. I will tear down Las Noches to stop the Death Knell of the beta. I will kill anyone that stands in my way.”

Pesche looked over at them. “Nelilel was the third Espada before Nnoitra and Szayel cracked her mask,” he explained. “She reverted to a child and lost her memory to protect herself. But now, the beta’s call…”

Nel released another sound from her throat and all the adjunca hollows began rushing toward Las Noches. “The siege begins,” she said softly and another flash saw her return to her child form. She teetered for a second, then fell flat with Renji leaping forward, catching her easily.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

The Knell awoke all that could sense it before dawn was full. In less than an hour, the bridge to Hueco Mundo was open, and Soi Fon led her team through to meet with Urahara’s team with Ggio close at her side. She’d had him change into a black shihakuso so that he would not be mistaken for an attacking arrancar. Assuming they had coordinated correctly, they would arrive near Urahara’s location. Behind her, the masked Visored kept pace, along with Isane, Rukia, Yumichika, Ikkaku, Yachiru and Kenpachi. They were sure they would need the fighters if what they were sensing was true. By the time they’d reached Urahara, Nel had regained consciousness and had no memory of what had happened.

Nel ran up to Ggio immediately and hugged him then grinned up to him. “Tiger found mate!”

Ggio blushed and so did Soi Fon beside him. Yoruichi arched a brow at her previous subordinate. “It seems the pheromones that he’s releasing are affecting us in soul society,” Soi Fon said, looking at Yoruichi and Urahara.

Nel smiled. “The beta brings hollow and shinigami together, cross the bonds, cross the worlds. It is him, it is him!” she said, jumping up and down excitedly. “Nel love Itsygo, hurry to save Nel’s Itsygo!”

Soi Fon frowned and looked around. “Where’s that fat lump, Omeada?” she asked.

Urahara snapped open his fan in front of his face and bowed. “Terribly sorry to report that your fuku-taichou had an encounter with a lion-headed arrancar as we exited the sands....”

She blinked. “You got my fuku-taichou killed, Urahara?” she asked, frowning deeply at the shopkeeper.

She attacked suddenly and there was a flash as Urahara blocked it with Benehime’s blood shield. “Yare, yare, I am sorry, but he didn’t listen when I told him to let me exit first!”

Soi Fon frowned and shook her head. “Whatever, let’s go.”

With that the tiny arrancar Nel giggled and began skipping toward the mass that was Las Noches, followed by the group of shinigami and arrancar.


	7. Seventh Variable: Harribel

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edited 5-30-14
> 
> Het Toshiro/Harribel lemon added.

Toshiro wasn’t sure what to think after Aizen left the room. He was bound, and he really didn’t want what Aizen had done to Ichigo to happen to him. He wasn’t sure why, but watching him put out the substitute shinigami’s eye had nearly made him retch. He still couldn’t get the smell out of his nose of the burning flesh. He was curious, though, as to what exactly was going on with Kurosaki. And the strangeness that these arrancar were acting.

“What is going on?” he asked the scientist. He reminded him quite a bit of Mayuri, and it seemed that he occupied the same position among the espada that Mayuri did among the shinigami.

The pink haired espada glanced about and adjusted his glasses up his nose again. “I’m to start running tests on you while Aizen…returns to what he’s doing to…the beta.”

The sudden overwhelming call sent Szayel to his knees with both hands clasped to his head.   Toshiro glanced over the side of the table. The espada was shaking violently and a strange keening was coming from his own mouth. He seemed to be unable to function. He whimpered and rocked back on his heels and then lifted his head and released an answering call. There was a pause and the painful call resumed. It lasted forever, at least that’s what it felt like to Toshiro, until the painful sound finally stopped. Slowly, Szayel lifted himself up from the floor. To Toshiro’s surprise he was sweating profusely and panting.

“He’s going to kill him,” he said, heaving a breath. “And I don’t know what will happen, if he does that, the alphas…” Szayel muttered, going about his testing on the ice captain.

After a few minutes, Harribel came into the room. “Aizen said you needed me.”

“Yes, he seems to think by bonding the ice dragon to your resurrection spirit, he’ll gain some control over it. Lay down on the second bed,” he said.

“Bonding? What the hell are you doing?” Toshiro said, pulling at the chains.

“What I must. If I disobey Aizen, I’m less likely to help the beta survive. I must do as he asks until…until…the time comes to change things,” Szayel said, connecting wires and electrodes to both Toshiro and Harribel. “This may hurt a bit, but it shouldn’t take long.”

Szayel pushed buttons on a console and then flicked a switch. There was a massive electrical charge that arced between the two subjects on the table. Toshiro screamed as he was sucked into his inner world. Harribel, though she tried to avoid uttering a sound, found herself crying out in pain and sliding into someplace unfamiliar. There was ice and snow and all the water around here was frozen solid.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

                Toshiro blinked and found himself being cradled against Hyōrinmaru’s massive chest. He looked up at the huge ice dragon and saw something akin to worry lining his face. He glanced over to the side and saw the woman who had been beside him. She was beautiful, but there was something deadly about her. Water, she was one with water as he was one with ice.

                “I cannot protect you from this, I am sorry,” the ice dragon said, clutching Toshiro’s slight body against him tightly. “I have done all I could, I cannot resist this bond they are forcing on us.”

                Toshiro looked and saw a shadow behind Harribel that looked like a massive shark swimming idly there. Between the creature and his own Hyōrinmaru, there was a silver chain. It sparked with reiatsu and was connected to nearly invisible collars on both spirits’ necks. Toshiro didn’t know what it was, but it wasn’t likely that it could be broken by the look of it.

                “We are one, ice dragon,” Harribel said thoughtfully. “You will become more hollow, and I will become more shinigami to compensate for our differences.”

                Another blinding flash left Toshiro blinking up at the ceiling of the lab. He heard the female arrancar sit up slowly. “I hope that is all Aizen requires,” she said, standing unsteadily.

                Szayel waved a hand over his shoulder as she disconnected the cords from herself. “Yeah, yeah, go do whatever it is you want to do,” he said.

                Toshiro felt weird. Very weird. He felt uncomfortable and hot and…oh no, he thought to himself. “What did you do to me?” he said franticly pulling at the bindings. “I’m…something’s wrong…”

                Harribel moved toward the door but as she neared it she and Toshiro both gasped. Harribel dropped to her knees and held a hand to her racing chest. Toshiro was in a similar state. Szayel turned and looked at them.

                “It appears the bonding means you have to stay in physical proximity of each other, at least for the time being,” he said thoughtfully. “Take him with you; he’s got the bindings on him. He can’t access his power. I don’t need the distractions.”

                Szayel unhooked the cuffs and shoved him off the table toward Harribel. He stared at him. “You mean I can’t be away from her?”

                “That’s what I said; now go on to her rooms. Something tells me a storm may be coming to Las Noches…” he said cryptically and went back to his readings.

                “Come, Ice dragon,” Harribel said, looking at the much shorter shinigami.

                Toshiro had no choice but to follow her. He sighed deeply and rubbed his aching head. They moved through the corridors until they entered what he assumed were Harribel’s rooms. Inside, there were three female arrancar lounging about on the couches. They looked up with Harribel came in with Toshiro following.

                “Oh, what have we here?” Mila Rose said, jumping up and coming over to Toshiro.

                “Is he our pet?” asked Sung-sun as she stood up and smiled behind her sleeves at him.

                Harribel sighed. “No, apparently he is supposed to be mine,” she said, going toward the back of the room. When she got about fifty feet away, Toshiro whimpered and went after her. It was infuriating but he couldn’t _not_ follow her.

                Apacci stared. “What happened? Isn’t he a shinigami captain?”

                “I can talk you know,” Toshiro said, annoyed as he leaned against the wall beside the door Harribel entered.

                “Isn’t he just cute? How adorable!” Mila Rose said, ruffling his white hair.

                “I’m not adorable!” Toshiro snapped and then growled at her.

                “Aw, aren’t you just the cutest little thing! How did you get to be a captain when you’re a little kid yourself?” Apacci said with a grin.

                Toshiro groaned and ignored them.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

                The next time the call came out, Nel immediately transformed into her adult self and stopped, letting out a long, loud call. Those that hadn’t seen it yet were surprised, but stayed back. Nel stood still until four different hollows came to her. These didn’t look like the others, these looked like arrancar. She spoke to them for a while and then pointed in several directions. Moments later, all of them took off. She turned back to the group of shinigami and her fraccion.

                “The siege is going to begin from the outside. By the time we reach Las Noches, the revolt should be ready to begin from the inside. The beta may not last until we arrive, however. He is weakening, drastically and quickly. I am not sure he can tolerate much more. The death knell is becoming desperate. He believes he is dying, not just in pain any longer. I cannot tell how much damage has been done, but it is extensive,” she said, looking toward Las Noches. They were much closer. “We’ll arrive within an hour or so. Rest here, prepare yourselves. There will be arrancar who remain loyal to Aizen. The ones that beta has allowed to take him, they will side with him, as will those loyal to them.”

                Rukia stared at her. “Allowed to take him?” she asked her voice weak. Beside her, Renji held to her shoulders.

                Nel nodded. “An alpha cannot take what is not offered. Granted, with his power, I doubt he was capable of ignoring it. It would have driven him insane.”

                “So he consented to them?” she asked again, worry lining her brows.

                Nel looked at her. “There is no real consent, shinigami. The beta’s instincts drive him to mate. The alpha’s instincts do the same. The beta will reject those not worth his power. Other than that, he will not reject powerful alphas.”

                Rukia nodded. It was as she suspected. It wasn’t really what he wanted, she’d known that from the moment he’d looked at her in soul society and asked what was happening to him. He didn’t know. He did now, but still. Renji pulled her tightly against him.

                “So are we fighting soon?” Kenpachi asked, looking over the expanse.

                Nel turned to him with a wide smile. “You will fight, shinigami. You will fight much.”

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Toshiro had fallen asleep against the wall outside what he guessed was the espada’s room. The other three had tired of annoying him and gone about their business, whatever it was, leaving him to himself and his thoughts. Exhaustion claimed him eventually, though. Harribel opened the door to see him sleeping there and shook her head. What was she to do with him? She purposely avoided mating her fraccion even though all three were betas. Yet here she was, already bonded with a shinigami that had been turned into a beta. She picked him up and took him to her bed, though. What else could she do?

He stirred and woke up after she put him down. He looked up at her with his big eyes and she found herself smiling at him. Her alpha pheromones began to flood outward, however, and she watched with interest as the shinigami answered the pheromone release with one of his own, that of a very strong beta. She noticed that a bone fragment was slowly coalescing around his left eye.

Toshiro had no clue what was happening. He only knew that suddenly the espada smelled amazing and every bit of blood rushed to his southern regions. He’d never been interested in women, or men for that matter, not really, but at that moment, he found the tall, tan and blonde espada to be far more beautiful than anything he’d ever seen, and his body was reacting in a very unusual way to her. His body was aching for her to touch him, caress him, to claim him.

“So it seems by making you closer to me, you’ve become a beta,” she commented. “We’re already bonded, so now, I will finish the claiming, otherwise we shall drive each other insane, and other alphas will seek to claim you, which I cannot allow,” she said, reaching up and removing her jacket, dropping it to the floor and moving onto the bed with the smaller captain.

Toshiro blinked and shook his head. “Wait, no, what…” he muttered but his words were cut off by Harribel’s very talented tongue on his throat and her hands removing his clothes.

It wasn’t that she’d never taken a lover, it was just her choice to lie with was generally females. However, perhaps a beta male would be something new and she could teach him to please her in the ways she desired. She smiled as she easily lifted him up and sat him on his knees. He sat blinking at her. She tipped her head to the side.

“You have never done this,” she said thoughtfully. Toshiro’s only answer was a shake of his head.

She smiled and released his obi and slid both hands down to grip him. His eyes went wide and he knew for a fact she was in total control. There was no doubt in his mind. Everything he would do was to satisfy and please her. There was no other explanation for what he felt necessary now. He fell backward from his kneeling position and she smiled, taking the movement to divest him of his hakama and loosen her own obi. She took his hand in hers and slid it down into her warmth. His eyes bugged a bit.

“Here,” she said, in an almost conversational tone of voice, as though discussing how to use a sword technique, not as though she were teaching him how to use his fingers on a woman. “Like this,” she instructed, moving her fingers over his as she laid on her back to allow him to explore.

Toshiro, of course, was a prodigy for a reason. It didn’t take him long to learn exactly what to do after being shown once. She was pleased with his progress and then she decided to expand his knowledge of what kind of pleasures they would explore. She smiled subtly and flipped him around, pulling his body upward on her and using one hand to press his head downward between her legs.

“Now, do the same, but with your tongue,” she instructed. Toshiro didn’t pause but a moment before he did as she asked.

She moaned a bit then adjusted so that he was closer to her mouth and took him down easily. He gasped and nearly choked and then her tongue was sliding around his balls and the space between and then into his body and he really did sputter and lay his head down at that. She swirled her tongue around, probing deeper, noticing that his motions had quelled to short, rapid breaths along the inside of her thighs. She then followed her tongue with her finger, sliding inside him to reach…

His whole body stiffened and he yelped as she found her mark. She smiled. Good, it seemed she hadn’t lost her touch. She stroked him for a few moments until she could tell he couldn’t hold back anymore and then removed her finger and shifted him back to face her on her lap. His face was red, both from being nearly upside down and her ministrations against his prostate. She had a feeling a few strokes and he’d be gone. There was something incredibly arousing about controlling him totally like this, though. She smiled and shifted positions, laying him on his back. He just watched her with wide eyes as she lowered herself onto him and he choked back a low moan. She took his hand and placed it against her and nodded. He, of course, was already well learned and knew exactly how to use his fingers now.

It wasn’t long before a powerful union of reiatsu informed any close enough that there had been another mating, this time between the ice dragon and the tres espada. Aizen, though, was too occupied to pay much attention to anything except his current project. He tossed a knife back to the tray and lifted Ichigo’s head. He’d passed out again. He sighed and decided to check with Szayel on his progress.

Some hours later, Ichigo was lost in the darkness inside his inner world. He couldn’t see there, even. What a pain in the ass, he though. He’d hoped at least he’d retain his vision in his inner world. He felt hands on his shoulders.

“King, don’t worry so much,” he heard the hollow’s voice.

“I am fucking blind, now, how am I not supposed to worry?” Ichigo said with a sigh. “Not to mention what else he’s done to me.”

There was a mad giggle in the darkness. “I’ll fix it; don’t worry so much, king.”

“What, you can fix my eyes?” Ichigo said, feeling a flutter of hope for the first time since this began. Was that what Aizen meant by saying the hollow would have to come out to save the corpse?

Another mad giggle. “King, seriously, stop worrying. I’ll regenerate everything when the time is right, instant regeneration, remember?”

“Will that take care of my missing fingers too?” he asked, annoyed with the hollow for initiating this and putting him through hell. He was losing his mind, he knew it. Maybe he wasn’t even in his inner world and all this was just his sanity finally slipping away.

“King, you’ll be brand new when I’m done with you,” he heard and his consciousness slipped and fell away into the darkness yet again.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

When Toshiro woke again he felt strange, and then everything came back. The bonding of his zanpakutou spirit with the espada’s resureccion spirit. Then he…oh. He tried to sit up and realized he was completely naked and cradled in the larger woman’s arms. Well, wasn’t that…odd. He sighed and Harribel stirred.

“It seems the bond is complete,” she said without opening her eyes. “Part of me is sorry that this has happened to you. I do not know if you were bonded with another in Soul Society.”

Toshiro shook his head. “I wasn’t,” he said. “But I want to help Kurosaki if I can, even if it meant I had to come here and go through this. I can’t…it is terrible what Aizen’s doing.”

“Yes,” Harribel said slowly, sitting up. “It is unforgivable. And I’m afraid you may suffer the same fate eventually if he is allowed to continue. We should see how he fares after the last time.”

A few minutes later, they headed quietly down the halls of white to the room where Ichigo was being kept. Toshiro did and didn’t want to go in there. He’d seen what Aizen had done the first time. And now…Aizen had done worse to him, he was sure of it. The room was dark when they entered, and they saw the figure slumped in the same position on the wall where he had been before.

Toshiro approached slowly and heard movement. He turned and saw that someone was in the shadows. “Who’s there?” he called.

There was a click and the light came on in the room and they saw that it was Szayel, the scientist. Harribel looked at him curiously.

“Why are you here, octavo?” she asked.

“I…I came to check on him, I had to, you know and now…I don’t know what Aizen’s going to do, but…he’s dying and there’s not stopping it now unless the hollow of his does something. I’m…I’m amazed he’s not dead yet,” he said, swallowing thickly. “I…I have to go.”

The pink haired scientist turned and left, leaving Harribel and Toshiro behind. Toshiro didn’t want to turn and see what state Kurosaki was in. He didn’t want to look at all. But he had to know what had one of the espada so upset. He wasn’t prepared at all.

Toshiro stopped in front of him and reached out and touched his face. Ichigo started, apparently awake, though it was impossible to tell since Aizen had put both of his eyes out. He turned his head from right to left. “Leave me alone,” he muttered. “No more, please…”

“Ichigo?” Toshiro asked softly, then he realized there was blood caked under his ears and he frowned. He couldn’t hear either. Toshiro turned to Harribel. Harribel’s normally stoic appearing face was twisted into something close to a grimace and a mask of fury. “Kami, Ichigo, I’m sorry,” Toshiro said quietly, patting his shoulder gently. The action, though, agitated something and he tried to pull away from him even though there was nowhere to go.

Toshiro turned to Harribel again. “What can we do?”

Harribel shook her head. “Aizen will deal a mortal blow next time he comes in here to get the hollow to finally emerge. I am unsure the consequences.”

Toshiro saw that there was a lot more that had been done to him. It wasn’t something he wanted to catalogue. He swallowed thickly and turned and headed toward the door. Harribel followed him silently. What more was there to do?


	8. Eighth Variable: Szayel

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 5-30-14 Edited

Szayel’s body was vibrating with fury. How could Aizen do something so terrible, so horrible to someone? How could he torture someone like that? Then he stopped, frowning and swallowed and realized something. He should have enjoyed that. He should have taken glee in torturing and mutilating someone while they were alive and hearing their screams. He should have been right beside Aizen, cutting flesh and searing bone. He wasn’t. Something…something had changed. He reached under his clothes to find the hollow hole. He blinked. It was gone. The hole in his body was gone. He took off at a run to see if anyone else had ended up in the same predicament. Or was it a bad thing? He had a feeling being around Ichigo’s pheromone release had done it. Whatever it was, he was unsure the consequences.

Just then, though, the ground rocked and he went stumbling into the wall. Someone was attacking Las Noches. He took off at a run to the nearest exit that he could see into the sands of Hueco Mundo and looked out to see a massive army of adjunca classed hollows attacking the walls. He then saw something that made him stop in his tracks. That resurrection. That reiatsu pattern. It was Nelliel. He was slightly afraid because the strong release of alpha pheromones was coming from her. He remembered vividly what he and Nnoitra had done to her. However, he actually…felt bad about it. He blinked, and then realized his head was clear. Completely clear. He didn’t remember the last time he was able to think clearly like this…

He had to rally the others. He knew this now. It was going to be the end, and it was coming quickly. He sensed the coming storm, and it would be time to choose sides. The arrancar would either side with Aizen or they would side with Ichigo, whether they wanted to choose or not. It was inevitable. There was no way around it. There would only be one King, and either Aizen would destroy the beta, or the beta would destroy him and reign. Szayel knew who he was putting his clout behind as he rubbed the spot the hollow hole used to occupy.

He dashed into the open dining hall and found Ulquiorra, Nnoitra, Zommari, and Yammy sitting at a table. The notice hadn’t come that they were being attacked. Of course, the espada wouldn’t be mobilized until after the privarion and other arrancar had been breached. The four espada looked up.

“Time has come,” he said.

Yammy frowned. “Time for what?”

“Time to choose,” Ulquiorra said from beside him. “Choose the king you’ll follow.”

Yammy and Nnoitra exchanged glances. “What does that mean?” Nnoitra asked.

Ulquiorra stood and opened the throat of his jacket where his hollow hole had filled in completely, a black circle. “I’ve made my choice,” he said and walked over to where Szayel was standing.

“What the hell happened?” Nnoitra asked, standing and turning to glare at the pair of them. “Why’d your hollow hole disappear?”

Ulquiorra, impassive as ever, stared at him. “I chose to side with the Beta. I will trust in him. He will destroy Aizen.”

Szayel grinned. “Yes, so have I, my hollow hole, and the madness, are gone. I chose the Beta. He will be my king. Aizen cannot remain in control of us. This is not his place. He is shinigami. He is not hollow.”

Yammy shook his head. “That fuckin’ beta is a shinigami. What’s the difference?”

Ulquiorra arched a brow. “A shinigami and a hollow, you forget. And a Quincy. He will unite the three realms. He is the one foretold by the vasto lordes for eons.”

“It has begun, hasn’t it?” came a female voice from the doorway.

All those present looked to see Harribel with the ice captain of the shinigami at her side. He’d changed, though. He bore small fragments of a hollow mask around his left eye. Harribel looked around at those present.

Szayel turned to her.   “It has. Has your hollow hole disappeared?”

She nodded. “I have made my choice in this battle.”

“This is weird; you are taking the side of that pathetic excuse for a shinigami? He’s almost dead! How the hell is he supposed to kill Aizen-sama?” Yammy said, shaking his head. Of all the espada, the monster of rage would be least likely to see reason and more likely to choose the path of the most hatred and anger. That path was not with the Beta.

“Wait and see,” Toshiro said from beside Harribel.

Just then a huge explosion shook the entire complex, Yammy, Nnoitra, and Zommari all taking notice and running from the room in the direction it came from. Harribel looked at Ulquiorra, his filled in hollow hole clearly visible, then at Szayel, who stood easily, eyes clear for the first time in a very long time.

“There is no more sacrifice for me. I will not relinquish what I have gained, never again,” she said, and turned, Toshiro following her. Ulquiorra and Szayel both went after them as well. It was beginning.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

The shinigami watched as the amount of hollows attacking the wall seemed to increase more and more. Nel was an adult at the moment, and soon she was released, a type of centaur with more ram-like features. She was directing the army, it seemed. Renji and the others were battling the arrancar that were coming to defend. To say it was strange was an understatement. Renji was actually defending some of the adjunca hollows. To be on the same side as the hollows… He shook his head, pulling Zabimaru’s bankai back and sighing. But they were helping get closer to Ichigo. That was what mattered.

Nearby, Ggio stayed near his new…friend, lover, mate, whatever Soi Fon was. He wanted to make sure she didn’t get hurt. He couldn’t believe the level of emotional investment he had in the shinigami. He released and went after a few lower ranking arrancar that he had been spoiling to fight with for a while. Then, the fraccion began to emerge. He stood still as he looked down to see the rest of Barragan’s fraccion emerge.

“Ggio!” screamed someone. He looked down and saw that it was Abirama. “What are you doing?”

He smiled. “What I want to do, for once. Choose! Aizen or the Beta, and I warn you, I’ll rip you to shreds if you choose the shinigami!”

Soi Fon flashed to stand beside him, staring at his former friends. “Who is this?” she asked.

“My former associates. I’m giving them the choice, my lovely hornet.”

“You mated her,” Findorr said as he leaped up beside Abirama with a sonido. “Exacta! He has mated a shinigami! Destroy him!”

“You chose wrong!” Ggio screamed and lunged at Findorr.

Urahara was making short work of the lower ranking arrancar when an espada level emerged, and he saw the strangest creature he’d ever seen. He had some sort of weird mask over his head. It didn’t matter, Urahara grinned and yelled over his shoulder. “Yoruichi, want to release your shikai? You haven’t done it in forever…”

The cat-woman grinned and leaped into action, pulling a short zanpakutou from the small of her back, seemingly disguised somehow before then, and smiled at the strange creature before them. “Sure, lover. Claw into ribbons, Oni Kurohyou!"

In a flash, her reiatsu rising, she was covered in a blue glow. When it faded, she wore a pair of purple gloves with five black claw-like blades extending outward a good five inches from the gloves. The gloves extended up nearly to her elbows and a brilliant cat’s eye that looked almost real sat on each wrist. Her clothes were now black as night, and a segmented tail like appendage emerged from under her kusodo. The segments were streaked with purple. She smiled. She winked at Urahara and leaped at the novena espada.

Urahara shook his head and was soon involved in the battle with Soi Fon and Ggio, putting Benehime to work with urgency. After no more than an hour, Urahara disappeared and there was an enormous explosion. When the smoke cleared, Urahara flashed back to the others and smiled.

“The wall’s down,” he said.

Yoruichi landed beside him and kissed his cheek. “I knew you couldn’t resist using your bankai forever, my love.”

Urahara winked at her and looked at the group around them. Ggio and Soi Fon had returned, and Renji, Uryuu, Rukia, Nemu, and a few ajuncas had gathered as well. There was a burst of Sonido and Nel returned with her fraccion. She looked harried, but not too worse for the wear. Everyone stiffened, though when another sonido was heard and a pink haired espada stood among them. In moments, Nel had her blade at his throat.

“Szayelaporro,” she said. “Why are you here?”

“I’m here to tell you who are your allies inside,” he said. “I know you have no reason to trust me, Nelliel, but I’ve been changed. My hollow hole is gone,” he said, swallowing at the sword on neck. Nel dropped her sword and stepped back.

“You side with the Beta,” she said, head tipping to the side.

He nodded. “Primera, Tres, Cuarta, and Sexta side with the Beta. Quinta is unknown, but I am certain Segunda and Cero will side with Aizen.”

Ggio stepped forward. “The fraccion of Barragan are dealt with, some have corrected their choices before they were to be slain. And I’m sure you felt Novena is dead.”

Szayel nodded. “Yes, inside, the others are mobilizing. We are no doubt going to see this end very soon. Please, lead your people after me,” he said, and headed through the ruins of the wall with the others behind him.

Uryuu had been injured and Nemu stopped. “We will follow shortly!” she yelled. “I shall tend the Quincy!”

Urahara nodded and Nel instructed two adjuncas to stay with them.

“You don’t have to stay, Nemu,” Uryuu said, ripping open the leg of his white pants which had been stained more red than anything from the cut on his thigh. “I can tend this.”

Nemu shook her head. “No, I will help,” she said, and shoved his hands out of the way, ripping away the torn remains of his pants.   Uryuu flushed a bit. He’d not expected her to be so…rough.

Nemu had the wound bound quickly but her touch lingered on the flesh of his leg, her brow creasing as she looked at it. Uryuu cleared his throat. “Nemu?”

She looked up and her fingers began to move above the wound and the makeshift bandage she’d applied to it. Uryuu’s face had flushed deep crimson as she continued to explore upward on his leg.

“I find you…intriguing,” she said softly, and looked up at his expression. “Despite your hatred of the shinigami, you wished to save me even though I had no need or wish to be saved by you. And now, I find myself wondering if it is more than simple fascination that has drawn us together. I will explore this while you recuperate from your wound. Lay back.”

With that she pushed him onto his back and he stared at her in shock. “What? What are you…oh good Kami!” he exclaimed as she reached down his pants and gripped his swiftly rising cock. That was certainly unexpected.

“You have desire for me,” she said, stroking him thoughtfully, and then used her other hand to pull the pants away completely.

“I can’t…help…it when you do…that…” he moaned.

She looked at him again. “Yes, it would seem as with most males manual stimulation is effective at increasing blood flow to the engorging penis on you. Would you like me to continue or stop?”

The only answer she got was a low moan as his eyes rolled back as her fingers danced across his heated flesh. She smiled. “Lay still. You are injured. I will show you things that will make you quite satisfied, especially once we return to Soul Society. There are many interesting inventions we can make use of in the lab.”

Uryuu wanted to protest that thought but she was over him and lining him up against her own warm, wet center. He threw his head back and held back an intense moan at filling her. Her body fit around him like it was made to do so, and soon she was rocking against him, her arms wrapped around his neck as he tried to focus on no coming yet because he knew that it was rather impolite to go before your partner.

It didn’t take much, though before they were filling the sands with their mutual expressions of ecstasy, and surprising each other with their deep attachment that went far beyond the physical sensations alone. Nemu stared down at him as he slept after he’d spent himself. She smiled, a genuine smile. Did she love him? She hadn’t been sure that was even possible…

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Szayel led the outside group into the depths of Las Noches, and into Aizen’s throne room. Aizen looked up and stared as Szayel led the group of Shinigami into the heart of his world. Gin and Tōsen both stared at the group in slight shock.

“You have betrayed me, Szayel?” he asked him.

“I have betrayed no one. I have only chosen a different King. My allegiance lies with the Beta,” Szayel said. “I have brought the shinigami who would see you defeated, and Nelliel, who has also chosen the Beta over your attempted leadership. Others have made the same choice.”

“Who else dares betray me?” he asked, standing and stepping forward, eyes flashing.

“There are others,” Nel said, stepping forward. “And we will defend the Beta. You do not understand our ways, and it is time for you to leave Hueco Mundo to the hollows it belongs to, and go somewhere else. Return to Soul Society, or die, if you wish,” she said.

There was a flash and Aizen was gone, and both Tōsen and Gin attacked the group. Szayel stepped back as the fight was engaged. He had a good idea where Aizen had gone, and he needed to rally the alphas, immediately. He moved as quickly as he could to the closest alpha. He was amazed, he could sense them now. How could he sense them? He was a beta, true, but he sensed them as though they were his alphas. It was Grimmjow.

“The battle has been joined,” he told the blue haired sexta, who was sitting alone in his rooms. “Aizen has gone to kill the Beta.”

Grimmjow stood and nodded, disappearing with a sonido as Szayel found Ulquiorra next, who also disappeared after Grimmjow. He found Primera and Tres, and they began to gather anyone else who would side with them. Grimmjow’s fraccion would join the battle on their side, and so would more than a few of the privarion espada who had seen the punishment for lacking power in Aizen’s army.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Ulquiorra caught up with Grimmjow just outside the room that Aizen had been torturing Ichigo in. He nodded to him as he came beside him. Grimmjow opened the door and froze. Aizen was inside, a long knife in hand and at the throat of the beta. Neither had seen him since his last encounter with Aizen, and both were shocked he was still alive. The caked blood on him was enough to doubt that fact, however. From the doorway, they heard the labored breathing from the beta on the wall. His body hung at an odd angle, and there were deep wounds in his sides were blood was now streaming. Grimmjow was a hollow, but still, seeing gaping wounds like that in someone that he was connected to made him ill.

“Bring me the hollow,” he growled at Ichigo. “Now, or I will kill you!”

Grimmjow moved to run forward but Ulquiorra, who sensed the rising reiatsu, stopped him. “Wait,” he said softly. Grimmjow frowned, but then recognized the rising pressure around them.

Aizen snarled and sliced through the pale throat under his hands. Ichigo’s eyes fluttered and went wide, mouth working silently as a waterfall of blood flowed down over the front his body. His head dropped slowly and Aizen stepped back and glared at the corpse he had left.

“A true disappointment,” he said. “In the end, you have cost me my espada, and now they will die for their misplaced faith.”

“Why would you be disappointed, you made me,” came a high pitched voice from the body on the wall.

Aizen blinked and a mad, gurgling laughter began from the body on the wall. Ichigo lifted his head, eyes no longer dead or even brown, as black sclera and gold irises shown at him. “I guess you’re my father, aren’t you? You named me White, after all, and now, I am as white on the outside as I was on the inside,” the voice continued, as Ichigo’s flesh began to turn pure white rapidly, and a foaming substance began to emerge from the wounds on his body.

He giggled and yanked on the chains, all of them snapping as he stepped forward. His arms fell at his sides uselessly, bones out of socket still. He winked at Aizen and there was a loud popping sound and he lifted his arms. He blinked and stared at Aizen.

“What? Still don’t recognize me?” he said with a grin. “Maybe this will help.”

He giggled again, and a horned mask began to form on his face and Aizen really did step backward.

“Impossible,” he gasped.

“You see,” came the strange voice behind the mask with glowing red eyes. “Guess who Ichigo’s mommy was? That poor little Quincy I tried to hollowfy. Surprise of surprise, bastard shinigami for a father he had, bound his soul to her soul to keep me at bay. Then she went and had a baby, and guess who took a ride on the vagina express with that baby? That would be me, the creature you created, the hollow without a hollow hole, the fucked up bunch of shinigami souls you fucking corrupted and used. And guess what? I rode out motherhood, and that means I became a beta. And the fucking Beta of legend, what do you know!”

Grimmjow and Ulquiorra stared between each other. A hollow without a hole? A created hollow?

There was a mad giggle again, and the hollow Ichigo lunged at Aizen.


	9. Ninth Variable: Nel

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edited 5-30

Szayel felt the drop in reiatsu immediately and stumbled into the wall. Nel and Ggio who were both near him fell to their knees with a gasp. The shinigami also felt something, but it was less distinct.

“The Beta…he actually…killed him…” Nel whispered, causing all the shinigami around her to gasp until there was a sudden reiatsu that rose around them and knocked them all flat to the ground.

“The hell was that?” Renji gasped, pulling himself up. He’d been around Zaraki’s full unsealed power, and that felt nothing like this. This was twice as powerful.

Urahara shook his head as he managed to get to his feet. “It felt like…Ichigo…”

Nel turned and smiled. “He let go the control over the hollow in death. The hollow took control.”

“What does that mean?” asked Renji as he came into the area with several dazed looking arrancar following him, some that had been fighting against them, and some that had been fighting with them.

“Why aren’t they dead yet?” a load voice boomed and they saw an older espada hovering above them.

Findorr and Abirama had stumbled into the room behind Renji when the strange reiatsu had hit them. For some reason, they didn’t want to fight the shinigami anymore. Ggio had asked them again, before they were to die by his hands, and they had chosen. They had changed their allegiance in the last second, it seemed. They felt the need to try and help the beta. Findorr looked up and rubbed the small piece of mask remaining on his face.

“Lord Barragan, I cannot fight those who side with the beta,” he said.

“What? You would defy me? Where are the others?” he said, frowning.

Abirama looked at Findorr. “I think they’re dead.”

“Exacta,” Findorr said. “Charlotte, Poww, and Nirgge fell to the getabishi shinigami,” he said with a shrug. “They chose wrong it seems, as we did in the beginning.”

Everyone looked up when something exploded out of Barragan’s chest and his eyes went wide. He glanced down to find that the vast majority of his upper body was obliterated. Behind him, Starrk holstered Lillinette. “Good bye, Segunda. Una beta like you is unnecessary in my pack.”

Everyone stared at the massively powerful espada that hovered in the air above them. “ _Mis amigos, por favor_ , the battle is not done yet. There are more who side with Aizen, and they come.”

Beside him Harribel appeared with her three fraccion. “Primera,” she said. “Novena is dead, and Cero and Zommari are coming.”

Just then, Harribel went spinning, the dark skinned Zommari tackling her through the air into the wall behind the group from Soul Society. There was a loud crack and they looked to see that apparently, the old man had sent a secondary group. Urahara appeared out of nowhere, blood soaked, Benehime still in shikai and nodded to the new group that had come through consisting of Komamura, Iba, Izuru, Shuuhei, Matsumoto, Isane and Unohana.

“Why have more of you come?” Urahara asked, flashing down before Unohana and Sajin.

“The captain felt the massive release of reiatsu that was blending with the substitute shinigami’s signature. He was unsure the situation, but we cannot allow this battle to spill into soul society,” the feral captain said with a nod to him.

“Understandable,” Urahara said. “It is, however, chaos. Be mindful of who you fight, many of the arrancar have sided with us, yet they wear the mark of Aizen’s army.”

With that, the ex-captain took off and engaged another enemy. Nel took off before anyone could question her. She had one destination in mind. The beta. She had to get to him before Aizen tore him to shreds. She zipped through the corridors until she was face to face with the second of her betrayers. Nnoitra stood before her, grinning, six arms crossed over his chest.

“Mantis,” she hissed. “Who do you side with?”

Nnoitra arched a brow and lifted the covering off his eye to reveal that there was no hollow hole, only a deep black circle. “Seems I chose something right for a change,” he said and dropped the cover back over his blind spot. “I’ve got a thing or two to work out with Yammy though, he’s released and they’re gonna be hard pressed soon.”

With that, Nnoitra disappeared, leaving Nel to Sonido to the room with the beta inside. She stopped at the open doorway where both Ulquiorra and Grimmjow stood watching what she assumed was the battle within. A loud explosion rocked the entirety of the area around them.

“He fights well,” Grimmjow said, not looking behind him at the previous tres espada. “I would like to help, but he would destroy me in a moment.”

Inside the room, the strange appearing hollow form of Ichigo was giggling manically and bouncing from ceiling to floor to wall around the flustered shinigami traitor.

“What’s wrong? Not enjoying being toyed with by your own creation?” the hollow said, standing against the high ceiling and launching himself at the bleeding shinigami.

Aizen had managed to avoid the hollow’s initial attacks. He was, after all, a captain classed shinigami and he had the hogyuku embedded in his chest. While not completely awakened, the hogyuku still powered him enough that the wounds he had gained did not slow him down. Some might have been fatal, if it were not for the hogyuku. One of his arms was maimed and useless, the nerves and tendons severed with a slash of some wicked black claws he had.

This time, the hollow slammed into him and let Zangetsu go, letting the zanpakutou fly while holding still to the sash. Soon enough, the hollow had Aizen pinned to the ground under him, clawed feet clamped into his shoulders as he sat back on him. Zangetsu was dropping fast, but not fast enough because he snapped the sash and the sword seemed to flip, point downward and slam with more force than should be possible into Aizen’s chest. Aizen’s eyes went wide and blood flowed up in a shower, and the hollow giggled.

“Hey, you know, that was fun, but I am getting bored,” the hollow giggled behind the mask, the multitude of his own wounds sealing shut as he sat there.

Aizen smiled, blood dripping from his mouth. “I’m not dead,” he said quietly.

“Of course not, I don’t want you dead yet,” the hollow said and yanked Zangetsu from his chest.

Aizen sputtered and rolled away, stumbling to his feet. The front of his clothes was ripped apart and the pulsating blue hogyuku could be clearly seen now. He put a hand on it. “I can’t die,” he said.

The hollow twirled Zangetsu around thoughtfully. “I think you can.”

“I have the hogyuku, my wounds already seal themselves,” he said, but the amount of blood he was losing seemed to go against that statement.

The hollow nodded and sauntered over to him. “Is that a fact? Let’s see it seal this,” he said, reaching out to Aizen’s sword arm and ripping it clean from the shoulder in one vicious move.

Aizen looked a bit shocked and simply stared at the point where his arm used to be connected. He hadn’t even seen the hollow move. It was impossible. “You see,” the hollow said, licking his lips and staring at the flesh. “I’m a hollow, remember? I’m going to devour your soul, Aizen. That’s the only way to describe it. The hogyuku has abandoned you. See? You aren’t regenerating the lost arm,” he said, dropping the dead flesh from his hands.

Aizen growled, because now he knew that the hollow was right. He didn’t feel the sealing of the wounds anymore. The hogyuku wasn’t helping him regenerate anymore.

“Why?” he said with a snarl.

“Power,” the hollow said with a shrug. “I have it, the hogyuku wants it.”

Aizen was helpless, to be honest, but the hollow wasn’t done yet. He had days of torture and pain to inflict on his tormentor before he let him die. That was the only reason the hogyuku still rested in his chest. The hollow knew because the hogyuku spoke to him. As long as the orb sat there, he would not die. So it was for this reason that the hollow grinned and wrapped long, clawed fingers around Aizen’s neck, piercing into he flesh.

“Want to see how it feels to have your eyes slowly burned out of your skull?” he whispered into Aizen’s ear. “I assure you, it is quite the experience…”

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

            “Look out, taichou!” Iba screamed as Sajin looked up just in time to see that he was in the crossfire. He was too late to move.

            Toshiro saw it before it happened but could do nothing to help Harribel. Zommari had used that weird power of his on her and her aim wasn’t true. The attack went off course and directly at the taichou. She was in resurrection, and it was her most powerful attack, meant to obliterate the other espada. Instead it slammed directly into Sajin. Iba was by his side in a moment, but it was too late, not even Unohana could save him.

            Iba’s anger swelled but he saw the horrified look on the tres espada and knew where his anger should be directed. The laughing espada that was at fault. Iba hadn’t realized he could call a bankai until it was done, and the dark skinned espada lay dead at his feet. He passed out from exhaustion, and Toshiro drug him behind a broken wall where Unohana was tended the wounded. Along with Iba, she was busy tending to Renji, Rukia, and now Uryuu who had just arrived from the sands with Nemu. None were critically injured, but they weren’t able to fight any longer either. Matsumoto leaped onto Toshiro when he came around, her own arm bandaged.

            “Taichou!” she said and then stopped, staring at the bone fragment on his face. “What…what happened?”

            “Long story, but we’ll talk later, I have to stay near Tier or I get weak and so does she,” he said. “Yammy is the problem now. It will take more than one to defeat him.”

            There was a crash and the monstrous beast Yammy began trampled through the area, ally and enemy likewise harmed under his multitude of massive legs. Kenpachi, wielding his sword two handed and without his eye patch, fought side by side with the six armed Nnoitra, Ikkaku and Yumichika. Findorr and Ggio joined the fight immediately, having dispatched their own enemies. The beast of rage was enormous, that was the only way to describe it. Kenpachi was having a great time, running across the back of the thing, slicing everywhere he could as he moved. Nnoitra’s six arms were each wielding his special brand of scythe and he was slicing legs from the beast left and right as he ran under the creature.

            Having lost several legs to them, he reached out and snagged Yumichika from the air and slammed him into the wall beside him. Ikkaku, who was nearby yelled out immediately as Yumichika slumped in the massive hand, blood running freely from his mouth and ears, as his zanpakutou fell with a clatter below him.

            “Yumi!” Ikkaku screamed again, and all thought seemed to disappear from his head. He had one thing on his mind, and that was to keep this beast from killing the only person in all of Soul Society he’d ever loved, especially since the peacock didn’t even know it.

            Before he even realized what he was doing, he’d called his bankai and laid into the massive beast’s face. He still had a hold on Yumichika though and held him in one arm. There was a scream and Ikkaku realized that the beast’s arm had been severed at the elbow by…Shinso? Ikkaku blinked and saw Gin disappearing again behind the barrier. Yumichika was still out, but he saw Yoruichi come flying over and snatch him from the air to disappear behind the wall where the wounded were at.

            Ikkaku grinned, and realized he was fully charged, and this beast was going to fall…

It seemed to take an hour or more, but finally they had cut down the Cero espada. Tōsen as well had been defeated, though was not killed.

            Gin had not been seen since he initially disappeared not long after Aizen had. He stood now and watched the battle below and smiled. He supposed it was not the answer to the problem he had intended, but the results were the same. Aizen would be defeated. He flashed to the hall outside the torture chamber as he called it. The three standing there turned to look at him. He held up his hands.

            “Mah, mah, not here to fight, I am here ta see that Aizen’s dead,” he said with a grin.

            Grimmjow snorted. “Not dead yet, but he wishes he was…”

            Gin looked through them and winced. Well, that was a mess. He was glad he wouldn’t have to clean that up…

            Inside the room, the hollow had grown bored. He reached down with clawed fingers and sunk them into the flesh surrounding the blue orb and ripped it from Aizen. His body arched once, twice, then fell limp and still. He smiled, leaning down and proceeding to devour the soul and assume the power it contained. The hogyuku pulsed in his hand and he held it up. He smiled and pressed it against his left eye. There was a flash and Ichigo stood in the place of the hollow, teetering on his feet and blinking one solid blue eye and one brown at the three alphas at the door.

            Nel shot forward and gathered him into her arms before he fell, taking off with him before he could muster a word. Grimmjow and Ulquiorra shrugged at each other and sonidoed back to the front lines to give the news that Aizen was dead. Gin stared into the room for a long moment and wondered what would have happened if it hadn’t been for Aizen’s hubris. He had been so sure no one could defeat him. Gin headed back to where the others were. He needed to have a long talk with a certain woman.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

            Ichigo woke up and felt very sore, but he was alive, which actually surprised him. The last thing he remembered was feeling his life slip away from him, and the surging power. He opened his eyes and felt the world shift and realized he was being carried. He looked up and saw that he was being carried by a woman with green hair. She slowed and stopped, putting him down.

            “Who…wait, what happened?” he said, stumbling a bit.

            There was a flash and Nel let her resurrection go and stood before the Beta and smiled. “Nel. I have felt a connection to you since you came to Hueco Mundo, Itsygo,” she said with a smile.

            Ichigo’s eyes rolled into his head. She was an alpha. Wait, he hadn’t ever encountered a female alpha…what…

            He didn’t have time because she was on him, pinning him under her against the smooth, white wall behind him. And of course, like the other alphas, he found himself becoming aroused at her ministrations. He huffed a breath. She smelled amazing and he knew his own pheromone release was heavy on the air.

            “Ah, how….does this…ah…work…my alphas are all…male…you…” he said.

            She laid a kiss on his throat. “You know what to do, beta, same as in the human world, only I dominate you in all ways…” she whispered and he felt his head spinning out of control. Why did his left eye feel so strange and heavy?

            Before he knew it, he was stripped and flat on his back with an equally naked woman standing over him. He gasped as she grabbed his straining arousal and proceeded to drop her warmth onto him. He gasped because that was incredibly new to him. It didn’t take long until her reiatsu was pouring over him and he passed out again.

            She smiled, dressing him again and lifting him to return to the front. She would be damned if only the boys got to have claim to the strongest Beta in Hueco Mundo. She was female in appearance, but she was an alpha first.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

            The toll of death and injury was not terribly high for the side of the shinigami and their arrancar allies. Ggio’s fellow fraccion Findorr and Abirama had survived with injuries while the other three, Poww, Charlotte, and Nirgge had all perished to Urahara’s blade. In the end, Yammy, Zommari, Aeroniro, and Barragan had been destroyed by the combined forces along with many lower ranked arrancar. Grimmjow’s fraccion had all survived as well, having taken their espada’s side from the beginning, though Shawlong and Edrad had only survived thanks to Unohana and Isane. Gin had returned and had taken off with Rangiku somewhere. Grimmjow and Ulquiorra had come back with the news Aizen had been destroyed, and Ichigo had been taken by Nel somewhere. The subsequent reiatsu burst solidified their idea of what had happened.

            Everyone looked up when Nel galloped into the area in her resurrection carrying an unconscious Ichigo. Rukia and Renji headed over as she put him down. He was whole, and appeared completely uninjured. They looked up at her. She nodded.

            “Itsygo will be fine,” she said and sighed, and in a flash was a child again. She grinned at them and curled up against Ichigo’s unconscious form.

            Renji grabbed Rukia and kissed her soundly then stepped back. “Oh,” he said. “Ah, sorry,” he said, red coloring his face almost to match his hair.

            She gave him a shy smile. “No, it’s okay, but you get to tell Nii-sama.”

            Renji’s face went pale.


	10. Last Variable: The Hollow Heart

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 5-30 edited

 

                The reaction to the fall of Aizen was mixed and some were confused by it. The hollows, all of them, swung their allegiance immediately to the new ruler of Heuco Mundo without a second thought. There were no dissenters, those that lived served Ichigo and his alphas. Ichigo had been moved, with Nel at his side, to a comfortable room, outside of which complete chaos had begun. No one knew what was expected of them, and everyone was confused as to what exactly had transpired. After a long fifteen minutes, Nel, now fully returned to her full form with her mask no longer cracked, emerged into the hallway where Starrk, Grimmjow, Ulquiorra and Szayel were all adamant that no one was to gain entrance into Ichigo’s room.

                Of course, the ones who were trying to see Ichigo the most adamantly were Rukia, Renji and Urahara. Nel closed the door behind her and looked around at the people that had gathered and were talking amongst themselves. She waved her hands over her head.

                “Please, please, he must rest before we can figure out what exactly we are doing here,” she said loudly, getting nearly everyone’s attention. “Our first priority is to triage the injured in the hall we previously used as a dining hall. Come, let us bring the injured there, both arrancar and shinigami!”

                She turned to the three alphas and Szayel who stood behind her. “You four, stay with him. The closer you are to him, the faster he will recover his strength. He will need it, for tonight we must complete the mating with him, otherwise his strength will fail. I will organize everyone, and then tomorrow we will put things to rights.”

                The others agreed and headed inside. Szayel paused. “I should stay as well,” he said softly, diverting his eyes.

                Nel smiled at him. “You should, Szayel. I see the blush staining your face; you have taken an adoration to him and are hoping he will accept you as his. I find it acceptable, Szayel,” she said, smiling and turning to head back to the large room where the shinigami and arrancar were working. She smiled. So, Szayel preferred a rare position indeed, a submissive to the prime beta of their pack. She shook her head and entered the room where everyone waited. Those with medical know how were set to work.

                “You!” she shouted at Izuru, one of the more recent shinigami arrivals. “And you!” she yelled, motioning to Shuuhei. “What are your names?” she asked, straight backed and definitely in charge.

                The two shinigami glanced at each other than at the green haired arrancar. “Um, who are you?” Shuuhei asked.

                Nel arched a brow. “I’m one of the prime alphas, so until the beta awakens, I’m in charge of Las Noches.”

                They glanced at each other again. “What? We don’t know what is going on, the fight was going on when we arrived already, we’re confused, to be honest,” Shuuhei said, glancing about. “We won? Or lost or what?”

                Nel sighed and clapped her hands loudly, startling those who had been busy with other things.

“Everyone!” she called. “To get this out of the way, I understand that the shinigami do not know the way things will work from here on out. I must be clear, until our beta awakens, neither do we. He will decide. We services him, all of Hueco Mundo does. Until the beta is mated, and within his mind after the coupling, no decisions will be made beyond immediate choices. Considering that he is human and shinigami as well as hollow, he no doubt will want to see the injured healed. From what I know of him, I have no reason to do otherwise. Until the other prime alphas and I have finished the bonding, this is what will be done. Tomorrow, once his head has cleared, and the rest of our minds, we will decide what is to become of Las Noches. For now, I would advise arrancar and shinigami to work together because from this day forward, we will likely be doing so.”

Everyone looked at each other. She turned to Shuuhei and Izuru again. “You,” she said, pointing to Shuuhei, “Go see to Findorr. And you,” she said,” pointing to Izuru, “You go see to Abirama. They were injured before they came onto our side.”

Both lieutenants wanted to argue but both saw Unohana staring at them. They immediately did as the green haired arrancar asked of them. They did not want to incur Unohana’s wrath. The two arrancar were seated next to each other and looked slightly worse for the wear. They kneeled and began undoing the makeshift bandages. Neither arrancar was particularly conscious at the moment.

Shuuhei looked up and over to Izuru. “Um, didn’t I see Gin a few minutes ago?”

Izuru looked around, and didn’t see his previous captain. “Um, no, and I don’t see Matsumoto…” he commented.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

“Oh!” came a cry from the doorway.

Matsumoto lifted her head and grinned. It was one of the Visored she wasn’t overly familiar with, Rose, she believed his name was. “I’m sorry, didn’t know the room was occupied,” he said with a soft smile as he closed the door on the nondescript room. She heard a soft giggle behind him and smiled to herself as she laid back on the equally nondescript bed.

“Seems someone else had the same idea,” she commented with a sigh.

“Mah, so it does,” came a mumbled reply from the silver haired fox currently contentedly snuggled into her bosom.

“You’re going to suffocate down there, Gin,” she said, ruffling his hair.

“Die happy,” he muttered, his breath ghosting over her breasts again. She had never in her entire life had a lover so in love with her breasts. Perhaps she should have taken Gin to bed sooner…

“So, it was all to try and kill Aizen? The defection, everything?” she said softly.

He nodded. “I saw the danger, I wanted ta stop it, and I had ta be close ta do it,” he said, pausing to lick gently the already rosy flesh as he spoke. “I wanted to keep ya safe,” he said, nipping again at the flesh, making Matsumoto wriggle.

“Gin, we just got done…oh my,” she said as he shifted and she could tell he was definitely in the mood to go at it again. “Already?”

He looked up, bright blue eyes wide and on her, his silver hair framing him. “Always ready, ever since we were kids,” he said softly and took to resuming his worshipful attention to her bosom.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Rose giggled as he was led to another room. “You sure this is okay?” he said for the fifteenth time.

“In case you haven’t noticed, the beta’s releasing pheromones. Tonight will drive even the most chaste and honorable among us to fuck the nearest living thing…or unliving if something alive isn’t available,” the arrancar in front of him said, throwing a wink over his shoulder.

Rose had no idea why he was doing this. Honestly, he was at a loss to understand why but he didn’t care at the least. All he knew was at the moment this one was hotter than hell and he wanted nothing more than to find someplace and have his brains fucked out. For some reason his head was fuzzy and he was having trouble thinking straight.

“Hey, you there?” the arrancar asked.

Rose shook his head.   “Feeling strange, fuzzy,” he said.

“Yer not shinigami, yer a Visored, right?” the tall, lean, lanky arrancar asked, finding an empty room finally.

“Yeah…” he said, breathless all of a sudden.

The arrancar winked his one eye, or did he blink? Wait, what was this guy’s name again? Then the next thing he knew he was on his back in a plain room with a white bed. “Yer in heat. Took a while to trigger it. All your Visored pals are gonna try and pair up, especially once he wakes up.”

“I didn’t get your name,” Rose said, arching as the lanky man began sucking and biting at his neck.

“Nnoitra,” he breathed. “Was Espada number five. Don’t matter much now, but you’re just my type…you mind if I have more than one beta? Already have one…” he muttered into the flesh over his exposed stomach.

“Mmm, not at all,” Rose moaned as he continued his ministrations lower and lower…

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

                Soon enough a few more from Soul Society had come through along with the rest of Ichigo’s friends that had been waiting for word. Rukia and Renji found Orihime and Chad quickly and led them away. A few minutes later the door opened and Shinji was standing there looking flushed and weary at the same time.

                Renji stood up and went to him. “What’s up?”

                “Not feeling so good. None of us are, and I can’t find…”

                Just then there was a burst of reiatsu that they all felt, obviously an espada level. Shinji smirked. “Nevermind. That was Rose. Shit, he’s off getting fucked already,” he said, fanning himself, his mask appearing. He dismissed it with annoyance.

                Renji and Rukia looked at each other and back at him. “What?”

                “Heat, so fucking hot, we’re…oh dear…” he muttered, dropping to his knees as a weird, keening sound came from him that Rukia recognized.

                “Wait, you mean…?” she said.

                Just then there was a yell behind Shinji and he turned to see a small girl with her hands on her hips and a she was holding onto Mashiro’s wrist. Mashiro looked about in the same state Shinji was.

                “You, Visored, you’re mine,” she said pointing to him. “I’ve claimed her too. Come on.”

                Shinji shook his head. “Wha, no way, you’re like, what, twelve?” he asked, flushing immediately.

                “I’m not gonna fuck ya, stupid, Starrk is. But you’ll be mine when he’s done,” she said with a shake of her head.

                Renji and Rukia stared at her. Both knew that how old one appeared and how old they were was sometimes deceptive, like with Toshiro.

                Shinji was still staring. “I…what?”

                She rolled her eyes and walked forward and grabbed him, easily dragging him away with Mashiro, who was in full mask. As soon as she touched Shinji’s hand, his mask manifested and he let out the low noise again. She drug them away muttering under her breath about stupid lazy Starrk. Moments later she knocked on the door to the room Starrk was holed up in with the prime beta. The door opened and Szayel answered.

                “Get Starrk’s lazy ass out here,” she said with a frown.

                Starrk sighed from behind and came to the door. “ _Mija_ , I’m waiting for him to wake to finish the…”

                “Well, first, fuck these two,” she said, nodding to the two she was pulling behind her.

                Starrk blinked and looked up at them. “ _Que_?” he asked.

                “Are you lazy and deaf? The pheromones, its sending us all into rutting. And that includes me, you ass, but _you_ are the one with the ability to claim with our reiatsu. So, for me to have my damned betas, you have to fuck ‘em for me,” she said with a shrug. Mashiro and Shinji, though hazy from the heat, were very confused.

                Starrk sighed and glanced behind him. “Alright, _mija_ , not in here, though, come on,” Starrk said with a yawn and lead them across the hall to another empty room. Lillinette shoved them both in and left the room, sitting outside the door.

                Starrk shut the door and looked at two very confused betas. “Ah, Lillinette, she is half of my soul, so, we are actually one arrancar. She has the drives of one of us still.”

                Shinji glanced at Mashiro and back at the man walking toward him. “Um, but you’re, like, supposed to be Ichi’s aren’t you?”

                Starrk shrugged. “It matters not, I share Lillinette’s reiatsu, but she is incapable of the copulation portion of this. Still…I should enjoy my time with you, _mi amor_.”

                Outside, Lillinette bounced a ball of the wall to wait. She was sure the encounter would be quick and dirty. Starrk was much more interested in getting back to his beta than messing with her betas. She supposed it was a little weird, but what could she do? She neither of them was complete alone. At least like this, she’d have someone when Starrk was occupied with his duties. She grinned as the first burst of reiatsu washed over her and smiled in satisfaction. It was always pleasant.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

                It didn’t take long after Starrk returned to the room for Ichigo to awaken with a start. He sat up and blinked rapidly, his one eye still heavy.

                “Well, look at that,” muttered Grimmjow, reaching out and jerking Ichigo’s face around to look at it. “What happened?”

                “Wha…” Ichigo asked, stumbling off the bed and into the bathroom and staring into the mirror. One of his eyes was blue. Not just blue, the whole thing was blue…the hogyuku.

                The resulting screech brought not only Nel running, but Renji, Rukia, Orihime, Chad, Uryuu and Nemu. Urahara and Yoruichi weren’t far behind him. Then came in and looked around. Ichigo was standing in the bath, leaning over the sink, and Grimmjow, Ulquiorra, and Starrk were all in various points around the room. Nel arched a brow.

                “He just realized what his hollow did with hogyuku,” Starrk said, stifling a yawn.

                Nel nodded and sat down on the end of the bed. The shinigami looked at each other. Urahara stepped forward and into the bath to look into the mirror beside him.

                “Oh…Kami…” Urahara said, stepping back.

                Ichigo closed his eyes and stood in the doorway and then opened them. Rukia gasped. “Kami, Ichigo, is that…”

                “No wonder it felt weird, damned hollow bastard!” he growled and then felt a crushing wave come over him and went to his knees.

                Urahara, Renji, and Uryuu all felt it and were rocked backward. “Oh…boy…” Nel said.

                She got up and began shoving the three woozy looking men out the door. The others followed. She glanced at them. “The only alphas in here need to be the ones that intend to bind to him for life, the rest of you, out. Take these alphas elsewhere,” she said, pointing to Renji, Urahara, and Uryuu. “If you don’t, they’ll try to get back in to him. I suggest if you are their mates, occupy them immediately.”

                With that, she slammed the door. Renji turned to Rukia with a drugged look. “It smells…so…nice…Rukia…”

                “Oh no you don’t,” Rukia said, grabbing him by the wrist and dragging him away. “I like Ichigo as much as you do, but no way you’re fucking him and becoming one of his mates. You, come on. I’ve waited long enough, dammit. Took you this long to get your head out of your ass…”

                Yoruichi looked up to realize Urahara was growing closer to the door with the same dazed expression. She grinned. “Come on, lover, I’ll keep you busy and you won’t think about Ichi’s hot little ass. But you know, if you wanna give him a try later, I wouldn’t mind watching,” she said, winking at the others and dragging the blond man off.

                Nemu looked at Orihime and Chad, both who appeared human enough not to be affected by the pheromone. She smiled, grabbing Uryuu by the arm. “I would try to find a quiet space. That pheromone is going to trigger every arrancar in the area into rutting, and any shinigami that is close enough to get the full brunt.” She glanced at the dazed Uryuu. “Or Quincy, it would seem.” With that, she drug Uryuu off into the nearest room, leaving the two humans surprised. At the first sounds from the room behind them, they both decided to take Nemu’s advice.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

                Ichigo didn’t realize when he’d been moved. One minute, he’d been on his knees, and the next he was on his back, looking up into four, no five, sets of eyes. Five? He realized Szayel was here too…but…

                Szayel nodded and began to divest the beta of his clothes slowly. “Ichigo, I am here for you, and for them, I suppose, if you’ll have me,” he said, licking a stripe down the midline of his body. “I’ll certainly make you happy, because I have a lot of research into…ah…items. This is new, I know, but sometimes, in a pack like ours, when there’s a powerful beta like you, you…attract other betas who want to serve you. There may be others, as your power grows and you bear kits.”

                Ichigo arched then as Szayel’s mouth closed around his quickly hardening arousal. He groaned and felt Starrk nipping the flesh on his neck as Ulquiorra proceeded to lave his tongue over his over sensitive nipples and flesh around them. Grimmjow, always one to get to the point, slipped his hand under him and before Ichigo could say anything, was three fingers deep into him, stroking his sweet spot with torturous accuracy.

                He was, frankly a mewling mess when Szayel came off him and he felt something tight around him. He rolled his head to see…

                “Like hell, get that off me!” he said, seeing that Szayel had wrapped a band around the base of his cock. Szayel grinned wickedly.

                “No, my dear, not yet. Waiting is half the fun,” he said, going back down on him, making buck impatiently into his mouth.   He whined loudly and looked to the others for help, but found only smirks and mouths and he swore Grimmjow was going to put his whole hand up him if he didn’t stop shoving…

                He arched again, realizing that Grimmjow was a little more than fingers deep. He groaned and started to complain but Ulquiorra had found his mouth now, just when did he move? Grimmjow smirked, working his fingers around the tight opening, amazed at how fast his body regenerated the damage. For what they had planned, he would have to be ready or they would end up hurting him.

                Starrk was still busy on his throat, and Szayel had moved beside him, holding his parts out of the way of Grimmjow, who had shoved both his legs up and was studiously invading him with four fingers currently. He smiled and rolled his fingers and began working his hand deeper, hearing the squeaking sound from above him that was quickly swallowed by Ulquiorra’s ministration. Cuarta’d acquired quite a liking of kissing, Grimmjow noticed. He grinned to himself as the ring of muscles gave enough that his thumb slipped through to the thickest part of his hand. Why not, he thought to himself, he was doing so well…

                Ichigo was about to come unglued. He’d already had one dry orgasm, and was about to go out of his mind with whatever Grimmjow was doing. He realized exactly what he was doing when he felt his thumb slip inside and he wanted to argue again but Starrk grabbed his knees and pulled them further back and adjusted himself so he was looking over at Grimmjow’s work. Ulquiorra, meanwhile, was ravaging his mouth like no one before and had his hands clamped over his head in a vice grip. It was almost too much, and then he felt Grimmjow’s hand slip past the knuckles and nearly passed out as another dry orgasm shook him. He couldn’t think anymore…

                He came back to reality a second later and realized he was sitting up, his back against Starrk and Grimmjow kneeling on the bed in front of him. He didn’t care what they did, he wanted, needed, to come right then. He whimpered but Starrk turned his head and captured his mouth and lifted him up and slid into him, spreading his legs out as he did. Grimmjow looked amused at the sight. He then moved forward and Ichigo’s eyes bugged as he slammed upward into him beside Starrk. Considering the size of both of them, he thought they’d pull him apart. Grimmjow smirked and leaned forward, biting down into his shoulder. Starrk let go of his lips and bit down into the opposite shoulder. Grimmjow reached between them, and pulled off the band, and Ichigo didn’t know anything other than complete, blissful whiteness for a while. He barely felt them come into him and the thick, warm reiatsu surrounding him and penetrating him down to his core.

                The world came swimming back, and his face was being petted by gentle hands and he realized it was Nel. She was stroking his cheek and whispering to him. He was already moaning because… He glanced down to see that Szayel was on him again, pausing to grin up at him around his own cock. Nel began sucking at his neck and he felt someone…Ulquiorra…was behind him. Then he was moving again and now he was in Ulquiorra’s lap, with his back to him. He felt someone, Szayel he thought, move him and he was guided onto Ulquiorra’s dripping hardness. He moaned because it filled him, but it wasn’t stretching him to his limit like taking Grimmjow and Starrk together. He dropped his head back and Ulquiorra captured his lips again, and then Nel was in front of him. She placed da kiss on his cheek and then he gasped as she proceeded to mount his painfully engorged arousal. She smiled and stroked his face as she controlled the pace while Ulquiorra held onto Ichigo’s hips.

                Once again, the world faded out completely, leaving him wrung out, and the deep penetrating reiatsu filled him inside and out. This time when he came back to reality, there were five bodies draped around him, all touching him in some fashion and he felt a driving need to just sleep… He smiled and did just that.

                _Good job, King. Rest now. You deserve it._

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

                The next day saw the restructuring of Las Noches, and all of Hueco Mundo. Ichigo woke with a single mission in mind, to unite the three worlds finally and put an end to the battles between them. During the long night, all the alphas had taken their mate or mates. Ichigo’s pheromones had ensured that, inciting even the lowliest hollows on the sands to take a mate. He took Starrk’s hand and Grimmjow took his other as they came to the forward in the room and looked out.

                “Today begins a new day for us. I’ll unite the three realms because I’m of the three realms. I am hollow, I am Quincy, I am shinigami, and I am human. Las Noches will be my home, and will be a home to any of the shinigami and Visored who wish to come here. You are all my pack mates. My alphas will see that there is no more violence against anyone in my realm. Now, please, if you wish to remain by my side, please do. But if you, even arrancar, wish to return to Soul Society, you may do so as well.”

                Ichigo smiled and sat down. He saw Shinji and Mashiro sitting with Lillinette and they looked happy. He smiled at Starrk and he nodded. “They are Lillinette’s betas now. Perhaps if they are good, we may let them play with us, ah, _mi amor_?” Ichigo colored a bit and looked out.

                These were his people now. He saw that Love seemed to have gained three betas and looked slightly put out as Loly, Menoly and Lisa chattered away and completely ignored him. Ggio and Soi Fon sat off by themselves, and Ichigo knew they’d go to Soul Society. Illfordt was nuzzled against Sung sun, and Findorr with Mila Rose. Shawlong sat nearby with Apacci leaning into his shoulder. Ichigo arched a brow to see that Abirama was sitting with a slightly red face Hachi. Hiyori, unsurprisingly, was berating her two betas, Nakeem and Di Roy, both of which looked sufficiently cowed by her. Kensei seemed to have acquired two betas and sat comfortably against the wall with the small, slightly Luppi in his lap, nuzzled against him, and the slightly annoyed looking Edrad sitting beside him. He saw a pair he was unfamiliar with yet, Dordonni he believed was snuggled into a corner with Cirucci.

                “Don’t even think that, Nnoitra!” Rose said, slapping Nnoitra soundly. Tesra, who was sitting beside them winced. “I’m not some bitch doormat,” he said, standing up and huffing off. Nnoitra watched, then grinned widely and took off after him, apparently soothing his jangled nerves since he wasn’t pushing him away. Tesra sighed and walked after them.

                Ichigo grinned at Grimmjow and Ulquiorra who sat across from him and sighed. He put a hand on his stomach, and knew that there was something in there. He looked up as Harribel and Toshiro headed toward them. He expected them to go back to Soul Society too.

                “We will split our time, Consort,” Harribel said with a nod at Ichigo. “We cannot be parted, whatever Aizen did to our spiritual essences has left us unable to separate from each other. So we will spend time in both realms.”

                Toshiro nodded and Ichigo saw the bone around his eye. He understand all too well what the small captain was going through. Then Toshiro winced, hands going to his stomach. Harribel looked down at him. “Are you ill?”

                Toshiro swallowed. “No, I mean, I feel a little weird…”

                Ichigo grinned. “Oh, looks like I won’t be the only one having babies.”

                Toshiro looked up. “Wait, what?”

                Harribel looked at him. “What did you expect? I told you I was the alpha of us. Gender doesn’t matter. The betas carry the young.”

                Toshiro stared at Ichigo with wide eyes for a moment before he passed out cold.

 


	11. Epilogue: More Variables: Children of Las Noches

“Fuck you! All of you!” came the high pitched scream from the medical bay.

“Ichigo, you’ve got to calm down! This isn’t good for the babies,” Szayel cautioned to the irate orange haired beta currently leaning against the wall in the room he’d converted to a birthing suite.

It had been necessary after the rash of births that had happened after Ichigo’s heat triggered everyone else’s. He had delivered more babies in the last month than he’d ever seen in his life. Out of all that death and pain had emerged something amazing. Untold lives had been created, and the world of Hueco Mundo had reached a new dawn.

Ichigo growled again, eyes flashing black with gold and groaning. “What is it that hurts so fucking much!” he complained.

Szayel glanced at the monitors. “The birthing canal is almost formed. That’s what’s giving you so much pain at the moment. Remember? Hollows, male or female, are not equipped for birthing until right before it happens. So your reiatsu is shifting and altering your biology as we speak, and then it will return to normal afterward.”

“Argh!” he groaned and panted against the wall. “Well it hurts like a bitch!”

Szayel winced. He looked up to see both Starrk and Grimmjow watching tentatively from the foyer. He glared at them and mouthed “get in here or I’m going to kill you both”. They came into the room and Ichigo’s eyes fell on them.   He looked suddenly completely distraught and Starrk went over and put his arm around him.          “Ah, it won’t be long now, _mi amor_ , you can do it, I know this,” he said gently.

Ichigo’s expression changed and he glared at him. “Fuck you too, you are never, ever fucking me again. Next time I go into heat, I’m fucking running off to the human world and having Urahara build me a goddamned sealed room!”

Starrk smiled gently. “I know, _mi amor_ , I know.”

After another two hours of berating Grimmjow, Nel, Szayel, Ulquiorra and Starrk verbally, Szayel announced he was ready to birth the babies. Outside in the foyer, Rukia, Renji, Orihime and Isshin had come to be with him during the birth. Szayel had the alphas stand aside as he helped him into the birthing chair. Before long, Szayel was instructing the beta to bear down on the first kit to be born. A moment later there was a squealing creature in the room, but it was not the only one. Szayel had been hard pressed to tell, but he was sure there were three of them, at least. Ichigo’s reiatsu made it hard to determine. Szayel turned and handed a wrapped bundle behind him. Nel took it and looked at it with a smile. It was a little girl, and on her head set a pair of ram’s horns. Her hair was bright green streaked with orange, and her eyes were brown.

Ichigo let out another cry as a second was delivered, and Szayel quickly handed it behind him to Grimmjow as he caught the second. “Twins,” Szayel said, turning and handing the second one behind him to Starrk. “They were in the same chamber,” Szayel explained and turned back to realize there was a fourth. No wonder Ichigo was in so much pain the last month.

“One more!” Szayel said as he lifted up the last of them, and handed it behind him to Ulquiorra.

Grimmjow was staring into the icy blue and brown eyes of a tiny little girl with bright blue cat ears. His eyes were wide as he stared at her. He glanced over to the identical looking little girl in Starrk’s hands; the only difference between the two was the brown dog ears on her head. They had identical ice blue and brown eyes, one blue, one brown, and vibrant orange hair streaked with shocks of brown and blue. Ulquiorra’s little batwinged boy had green eyes and black hair but there was a layer of orange under the black. They looked at each other and to their exhausted beta who was somewhat out of it thanks to some pain medications Szayal had given him. He wasn’t fully hollow after all, which made it harder on him than some of the arrancar.

He smiled at the alphas in the room. “Okay, so maybe you get to fuck me when I’m in heat again, that’s pretty damn amazing,” he said as he faded into sleep.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

                Izuru and Shuuhei were on ambassador detail in Las Noches when they surprised by being run into by a pair of tiny creatures zipping down the hallway. Each one of them deftly picked up the speeding bundles with a confused glance at each other.

“Lyrian! Anyia!” came the shouted voice of someone coming toward them. “You get your tails back here!”

                They saw an exhausted looking Grimmjow come jogging up, with a bat winged boy sitting on his shoulder, and the little girl with the ram’s horns tucked on his waist. He had a scowl etched into his brow.

                “You two get into more trouble,” he muttered and looked at them. “Hey, you’re not busy, hold onto the brats and bring them to the main room so they can play with Toshiro’s twins.”

                He turned and walked away, leaving both Izuru and Shuuhei with the babies. They were just learning to walk, and like most toddlers, they started running first. Of course, hollows aged differently, so they were only a few months old. They followed the alpha into the main room where Toshiro was laying on a couch with his head in Harribel’s lap. She was watching their twins while idly stroking his hair. Ichigo was laying on the floor on his stomach being climbed upon by the two little ones. The girl was silver haired with Harribel’s dark skintone, and the boy had bright yellow blonde hair with white streaks in it and Toshiro’s aqua eyes. Both of them had been born with gills as well as lungs, and a pair of wings that they could seemingly summon at will. That made keeping up with them a terror.

                “Grimmjow, isn’t Aiko getting bigger than Tycho?” Ichigo asked as Grimmjow sat down the little boy on his shoulder and the little girl on his hip. “So, Lyrian and Anyia decided they needed to race, Shuu and Izuru caught them in the hall,” he said, gesturing to the two shinigami who set the pair of twins down. They immediately ran over to their dam. Ichigo snuggled into both of their soft heads.

                “Did Danka give you any trouble? She’s been headbutting Anyia all the time the last few days…naughty little thing, wait until your ma gets back,” he said, lifting up the ram horned little girl who blew a raspberry at him. He kissed her forehead and put her down again.

                “She and Kotetsu were fine, just the twins that are giving me fits lately since they figured out how to run,” he said, setting the little bat winged boy on Ichigo’s back. He slumped into the nearest sofa.

                Shuuhei and Izuru smiled at the scene. An odd family, but a nice one all the same. Shuuhei jumped as he felt someone touch his back. He turned and saw that Findorr and Abirama were both behind the two shinigami. The two arrancar exchanged a glance and then Findorr winked at them and walked off with Abirama. Shuuhei and Izuru looked at each other. Ichigo snickered and they looked at him.

                “You two better watch out, Findorr and Abirama seem to think you two are worth a second glance,” Ichigo said with a grin.

                Shuuhei’s eyes went wide. “What?”

                Ichigo grinned. “Yeah, you should come around when they’re rutting. They’ve taken a liking to you two…”

                Izuru and Shuuhei glanced back up and over and saw they were being stared at. They weren’t sure what to think, but Ichigo was snickering again.


End file.
